Re: [Orchard: Bea & Holly]
Bea accepted his response, not as truth, but as truth as he thought of it. She sighed when he returned the pressure on his fingers, as if he had turned a key in a lock she'd wished he would ignore. She stood there for a second and intentionally looked up at the sky through the spreading branches, trying to pretend the person standing there was the one she married. It almost worked.
When he stepped away she did not pursue the contact. No, the past was long dead, even if Holly wasn't.
She started violently when the bird died amongst the shivering white shadows of other versions of herself not far away. The moment was like a knife cut in the meeting. She didn't look at him, just stared at the feathers. "Okay." And she turned away from him, back the way she had come, in the direction of where she had parked.