Chapter 37: Why Me? - Richard

Klempner rubs at his forehead. "Mitch, I'm not a branch of the social services. How am I responsible for the girl? I didn't put her there. She's made her own choices about where to be."

Mitch's lips press to a line that would cut glass. Cannonballs would bounce off her expression.

"I was hoping for a quiet beer."

"Your beer won't fly away."

Klempner huffs air... Slaps his glass onto the tabletop, where it splashes and slops... Slaps palms on his knees. "Why me?"

"Because..." hisses Mitch, "... thirty years ago, that was me."

"Really?" Klempner goes very still. His eyes, grey and pale, hold hers. His voice flat, "That's not something you ever mentioned before."

Mitch stares him down. "We all have memories we prefer to leave behind."

He stares back, then sighs, rubbing at an eye. "I suppose it's good that I'm not responsible for all of them."

Charlotte, thus far silent, "It was me too," she says quietly. Her former stiffness has melted away.