THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
       Episode 108
    THE SLOW AFTERNOON
The afternoon arrived
with a dry heat.
The house was muffled,
a cocoon of soft shadow.
James sat on the sofa,
his hands resting on his
knees, watching Virginia.
She was resting her head
on a cushion, eyes shut.
The lilies on the table
scented the entire room.
"They smell so sweet,"
she said without moving.
"I like the fragrance."
"They are for you," he
replied, voice very soft.
"I wanted to bring you
something that felt like
a beginning of something."
Virginia opened her eyes,
a slow, gentle flicker.
"It feels like that."
"A new start," she said.
"I feel like I am finally
seeing the world clearly."
Robert watched from the
kitchen doorway, leaning.
He did not want to break
the spell of the room.
He watched the way the
shadows lengthened out
across the wood floor.
He watched the way his
daughters sat together,
no longer needing to hide
or defend their names.
The struggle had been a
fire that purified them.
Now, they were just?
they were just alive.
"The forge is running
itself today," Shirley
remarked from the rug.
"I checked the feed."
"Let it run," Robert
said, walking over now.
"We have enough here."
He sat down with them.
They didn't reach for
phones or tablets today.
They didn't worry about
the market or the news.
They watched the setting
sun sink toward the ridge.
"Is it really over?"
Dorothy asked the air.
"The fighting?" Robert
looked at his children.
"For today, it is."
"And tomorrow?" she said.
"We will see," he said.
The room grew dimmer,
the colors fading deep.
They lingered in the dark,
a family at the table,
waiting for the stars.
The medical terror was
a distant, fading echo.
The life they built was
the only thing that held.
They were together, and
that was enough to stay.

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