The Ace of Spades

Chapter 22

Victor is late to show up to the cave.

Mea sits on her rock, flat and in perfect view of both the fire pit and the trail leading to the cave. The sun creeps ever-so slightly higher, oozing rays of golden heat, absorbing what little dew still remains at 9am. Mea's not wearing a sweater yet again. The birds are not chirping. Today does not feel like every other day.

In the silence, in her lonesome, she creates a story of her father. Doug Sullivan: His New Life. She first thinks of the day after he fled; he must've been confused, unsure of the road ahead. Perhaps he went to an old friend's place. That day would be nerve-wracking, considering he'd spend his last decade as a father. Mea feels secondhand anxiety.

An ant crawls in the ground infinitesimally below Mea. To the ant, she is larger than life.

Upon further thought, Mea accepts that he most likely did not feel confused. He probably felt free. He no longer had the responsibility of three children, his wife was no longer a lead weight attached to the back of his foot, dragging him along even when she disappeared for long lengths of time.

Moving on, she thinks of the days, months, and years following his departure from her life. He met a new woman, she has a daughter. Casey. Casey is 15. A ready-made family because the one he made himself wasn't good enough.

Victor appears suddenly at the ring of the firepit.

"Hey Ace, sorry I'm a bit late."

Victor smiles and Mea's thoughts of her father are lost. A bottle, stuffed with sensitive information, bobbing along the waves at sea. The sea, the tide, is Victor. He washes along the shore, brown eyes the hue of caramel waters in the sunlight.

"I could've been killed alone out here waiting for you," Mea jokes.

"By what? A squirrel? You don't even have nuts to give a squirrel," he smirks.

In response, Mea blushes. She averts eye contact. Wow.

Victor plunks down on the rock adjacent to Mea. She can feels his eyes poring into hers before she looks up. She takes her time observing the tiny ants hard at work, then looks up slowly. Things feel different today.

When they do meet eyes, Victor isn't smiling like Mea anticipates. His face is neutral. He's observing her the way she did the ants. He studies her face with the sort of profession an archeologist may study new findings. Perhaps Mea is new today; this would explain how she feels.

"What?" Mea finally asks.

Victor shrugs and his face breaks into a smile.

"Nothing."

It doesn't feel like nothing. Mea let's it go.

**

Doug Sullivan: His New Life.

The title is choppy. It gives away too much. The main character is Doug Sullivan and this is his new life. Anyone with a new life in the middle of their current life must've had a previously shitty life. How can you have multiple lives within one life? Is this phsyics? Time travel? Psychology? Alternate universes?

Mea decides to chew on the idea of the title, but puts it aside while she mentally writes her story.

Doug Sullivan was a tall man, he favoured his plaid jacket in the winter and shirts that say things like Someone who loves me went to Mexico and bought me this shirt! 1996 or feature the logo of a store long-since shut down: Blockbuster for example. His hair was dark and thinning, each day plucking a hair from the top of his head, never to grow back again. He listened to classic rock but had a secret affinity for Louis Armstrong classics. He was a good man on a good day.