A Rose Out of Place

He spent three years turning himself into the Pei family’s blade, sharp with every strike and aimed at every enemy. No one knew that the one person he could never bring himself to point it at was the person who had turned and walked away.

That street, that shop, was the ferry crossing he had saved for himself. I once thought he had left. Only later did I understand that he had been waiting all along for me to row over and bring him home.