THE TOWERS FAMILY SAGA
        EPISODE 42
The yard was a rectangle of
dust surrounded by wire.
Robert walked the perimeter,
his boots on the gravel.
He wasn't looking at the
other men in orange.
He was looking at the way
the heat rose off the sand.
It reminded him of the Rim.
It reminded him of the soil
that was being cured.
A man joined him, keeping
a respectful distance.
It was the man from the
cell across the tier.
"They took the sign down,"
the man said, kicking a
stone. "Saw it on news.
Your building is a bank."
Robert didn't stop.
"It was always a bank,"
he replied, his voice calm.
"The name was just a way
of hiding the vault."
The man looked at Robert
with a new curiosity.
"Don't you miss the view?
Being king of the hill?"
Robert stopped and looked
at the sun on the wire.
"The view from the top was
distorted by the glass."
"Down here, I can see the
dust for what it is."
The fallout of his life had
landed him in the dirt.
But he found that the dirt
was solid under his feet.
He didn't have to worry
about foundations now.
He was already at the
bottom of the world.
"You're a strange one,"
the man said, moving away.
Robert continued his walk.
He thought about the
letters Minnie sent.
She told him of the debt.
She told him that Bella
was hunting house flies.
He felt a surge of thanks
for the honesty rule.
It had stripped him of a
billion in assets.
But it gave him a family
that could finally stand.
He finished his mile as
the whistle blew.
He stood in the line with
the other numbers.
He wasn't a king anymore.
He was a man paying a price.
And the price felt fair.

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