Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #16 July 2015 | Page 35

of his coat.He didn’t notice, and reluctantly, she pulled
her arm back. She knew he would be like this, but that
didn’t make it any the less painful to see.

wayward brother. She didn’t look back. Her father was
gone.There was no need.
#

The sound in the room changed, the steady
beeping became faster, then slowed. Lines on a display flattened out.

Martin was in a strange bed, in a strange room.
He couldn’t remember how he came to be here or even
where here was. There were walls around him, but
they were blurred, nothing but off-white shapes. He
had tried to sleep, but something was making noise.
He wanted silence to think, but all he could hear was
something beeping nearby.

The old man dropped his head back on the
pillow, too weak now to hold it up. A sigh came from
his lips, his breath leaving him. His eyes of steel blue
faded and rolled up, and the scream of a siren filled
the room. The nurse reached across and pressed a button and shocking silence filled the room for the first
time since he had been admitted.
The doctor stepped closer to the son and
daughter. “My condolences, do you want to stay here
a little longer? Say your goodbyes?”
John’s head snapped round, suddenly angry
though he didn’t know why. “No, I said my goodbyes
when he died. This. This wasn’t my father.” John
pushed his way past the doctor and out of the room
into the corridor then turned and walked along it, not
heading anywhere in particular, just heading away
from the room and the death of some old man.
Elizabeth tried to catch his arm as he walked
past her, but she couldn’t hold him, so she turned to
the doctor. “I’m sorry doctor, he was very close to our
father, it’s just, it’s...”
“He’s taking it hard. No need to apologise. I
can leave you alone for a few minutes if you want.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “No, I better catch
up with John. What do we need to do now?”
The doctor placed a hand on her shoulder and
gave her his best fatherly smile. “Nothing today, the
hospital will be in touch about the paperwork and the
funeral arrangements but for now go and find your
brother.”
She nodded her thanks and walked out into the
corridor, her heels sharp on the tiles, looking for her

Several times he though he heard voices, but
there was never anyone there. He tried to look but he
was so tired, he could barely lift his head or move in
the bed. Why was he so tired? He had things to do.
The fence at the bottom of the garden needed repairing; he was going to put in a new panel.
Why was he so tired?
Then something moved beside him, and he
rolled his head to look, lifting his head off the pillow
by sheer will as his neck muscles struggled.
Someone was standing there, a woman, no a
girl, a beautiful girl, light red hair, a thin cotton dress
that hung to her knees but left her freckled shoulders
bare. Eyes like pools of blue he could swim in, eyes
he had woken to every day for so many years, such a
wonderful life they had had together.
“I miss you.”
Martin was looking up at her face as she stood
beside him. She was so beautiful, the chase of freckles
either side of that elfin nose of hers. She was wearing
the same blue summer dress she had been wearing
the first day they had met, at the park across from the
university campus where the students went during the
summer to study or relax.
What a day that had been, he was deep in his
books and had looked up when a shadow fell across
him, a delightful voice asking for a drink of water
from his bottle. Instead of answering, he had stammered, his voice lost in the blue of her eyes. She was

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