23
There was silence in the little house, then the mice began – scritch scritch scritch – behind the walls – the lights flickered, and a long piece of wallpaper peeled off, exposing dead drywall and a weeping trickle of moisture that ran down the ivy pattern onto the white baseboard.
Murky liquid pooled like tears on the white and red linoleum squares beneath Scarlett’s feet,“I’m not defeated,” she declared. “We have only begun to fight.
“The love we missed out on all those years, Troy,” she called down the hallway to his room, “The love that should have been ours, son – we will have that!”
“You’re crazy!” Troy cried. She could hear his automatons march and crash against the door to his room.
She checked her watch, with the square face and the three dials to measure time across the gl
