GERALD
"You must be fucken out of your mind, Gerald!" My sister, Selene, shrieked from beside her tight-lipped husband, Turk. I glimpsed how he crept his hand from behind to tug at the sleeve of her long red dress and mouthed, "Sit down," to her. She darted a steel glare at him, yanked her arm free, and sat down respectfully, releasing some invectives aimed at me.
She wasn't the only one in the room who thought I had lost my mind. We were in the parlor, and sitting around the room were my father, my mother- her face upbeat and emotionless- Harold, standing ramrod straight at the door, always on guard, Bernard, whom I was surprised was still here, and of course my dear Jocelyn, with whom I hadn't gotten the chance to speak in private before the crew, who, upon catching a whiff of my
