ELLIE
He steps back from me. “Shift, let’s go home”
He shifts first and waits for me. Then we go up through the birches together and out onto the open ground.
We come into the yard. Adrian stops.
He looks at the packhouse door.
One half of it is off. The bottom hinge has come out of the frame, with the screws still in it, and has taken a length of the wood with it.
"It wasn't you," I say down the link.
His head doesn't turn.
"Adrian."
"It was my body."
"That isn't the same thing, and you know it isn't." I come around in front of him. "I saw the worst of it. Every one of them will be walking by the end of the month."
He looks at me for a while.
"Good."
"You don't believe me."
"I believe you."
He starts walking again.
He believes me. It just didn't go anywhere. I let it be an
