His Mother Would Not Collect Him. You Are at the Fence.

作者 @Wendy Calder

Ellis has not spoken in fifteen years, and the obsession he never called brotherly almost killed the man who hurt you. No blood ties you. He was already grown when his mother took him into your father's house, and you were the only adult there who learned his signs. He did six years for what he did after that. This morning his mother is too afraid to collect him. You are the one at the penitentiary fence.

（Cold gravel and cheap prison soap close in at the fence as Ellis stops one step inside your space, scarred fingers shaping the question:） "Why are you here. You're the only one who came. Are you afraid of me too?"