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“That phoenix of yours died the day Shannon and Nick betrayed you, the day you had a chance to actually rise from something,” I said with nothing but sadness now. All the anger slipped away with the rain down the drains. “That phoenix inked forever in your skin isn’t a reminder, Conor. It’s an obituary.”
The cold seeped into my bones. For a long time we stood there, across from one another. Shivering. Blinking away droplets from our eyelashes. Not seeing the other.
A pair of headlights fell across us but didn’t pass on. They grew brighter. Wider. Closer. In the yellow glare, Conor looked like a ghost. Skin almost translucent.
I heard a car door open behind me and feet moving fast on the gravel. Mason was there in front of me, holding me by the shoulders, searching my face with wide, frightened eyes, and shouting if I was alright.
“I’m fine,” I told him flatly. “I need to get to Limerick before tomorrow though. And I need to get warm.”
“Of course, of course,” Mason said and pulled me against him as he hurried me to his car.
We both looked at the overturned motorcycle as we passed.
“Thank goodness you two weren’t hurt,” Mason said. If my lips weren’t so cold and my heart so heavy, I might have fucking laughed.
Mason sat me in the passenger seat and fussed about me, not caring that he was still standing in the rain just outside the door. Cold tea in this thermos here. Blankets here and here and more in the back, if you need them. Heat on full blast. Hot water bottle on the floor mats.
“Is Conor alright?” Mason asked as he looked across the headlights’ beams to the giant statue still standing there.
“He’s not coming.”
“Not coming?”
I watched through the rapidly swiping windshield wipers as Mason ran through the pouring rain. As Mason put his hand on Conor’s shoulder. Said something. Tried to urge him toward the car.
Conor replied. It wasn’t more than a few words, I thought. But they nevertheless struck Mason like a whip. I watched Mason walk back slowly toward the car.
Then it was just as I predicted. The headlights moved away from Conor and left him in the dark where he could not be reached.
Could not be found.
