Clearing The Air, Part 1

As expected, nothing substantial came out of visiting Ria tonight. Really, it was the magical, mythical equivalent of a bedside hospital visit… only without the hospital, and without the bedside. 

I can see why these visits were normally strictly a family-only ordeal, because when you got outsiders, strangers like me, loitering around nearby… it doesn't make for much of a tender moment. 

Irene simply stared away at her in silence, she didn't move an inch closer, she didn't even touch her. 

If she had any words, anything at all she wanted to say, something she's had simmering on the inside all this time, something's she kept buried deep just yearning to be let out finally… then, I've never heard her breathe a single word of it.

Since we arrived here, and then afterward, when we finally left there, it stayed buried, it stayed simmering.