Death Bliss
The suspicion I carried home from the graveside is now confirmed by a woman I am holding captive, and the arc of my life has bent from a man protecting the family machinery toward a man who must decide whether to dismantle it with his own hands.
I look at Serafina. She is still holding the candle. The flame has burned low, and the wax has pooled in the holder, and her hand is trembling now, a fine vibration I would not see if I were not standing this close. She is not a translator handing a client the worst document of his life. She is a co-conspirator. She has handed me the fuse, and she knows I will light it, and the intimacy that began in captivity eleven days ago now carries the weight o