Serpent Lake (M) Two straws, one check, girl, I got you.

a world of difference chasms between them. soto senses he's drowning despite standing on dry land.

how to explain that the green was his life's work? that to indulge was the death of his duty? 

did it matter? 

he sees many things in the glinting orange of the amazon's gaze. confusion. frustration. and reflecting back across that glossy iris was a deranged and skewed soto, eye missing, teeth gone, standing akimbo with no one but himself and rotted green wilting at his feet.

was this his future?

perhaps she -- and their son -- had dodged the bullet soto would spend his entire life running from.

es el verde. he struggles to explain, feeling an unusual sense of helplessness. despite towhee's poor spanish, soto understands her perfectly -- and the look portrayed in her autumn gaze is enough to cut clean to the bone.

no use. he tacks on, shrugging and unable to meet her eyes again.