These Dreams of You

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Staring at each other, Viv and Zan have so many of the same questions — where were you? why did you go? are you all right? — and share so few answers except one — never mind; never leave again — that all the questions cancel each other out. Her son puts his arms around her in a way that he hasn’t since he was Sheba’s age and says, “We thought you were in Berlin.”

“Berlin?” she says.

Zan shrugs helplessly, “I. . ” and she touches the marks on his face where he was beaten and throws her arms around him. They hold each other, one or the other reaching over to turn off the light in the hallway outside the door, one or the other quietly kicking the door closed until they’re back in the dark. On the floor by Molly, Sheba sleeps.