081413 #worm #roach Half a lifetime later, she's sitting at the counter at Esriel's Cafe. Her shift is done. She whips her apron off, and takes Dorbifr's proffered arm. A real date! She's giddy with it. They climb into his ochre-green tank of a car. She puts the rose he gave her tenderly up on the broad dash. The city leers in at them, distorted with the curve of the enormous windshield, but its stares are harmless now. She is a woman. She is the only one she knows who has nothing to hide. Dorbifr, her ursine knight, rests his warm paw on her knee. She breathes. A double handful of years too late, but it is good. The pair of them, seen from outside, are probably laughable--she laughs.