New World in the Morning (30 page)

Now
there
was a coincidence.

For what had he decided in his wisdom ought to be my swan song?

“…Gentlemen songsters off on a spree,

Doomed from here to eternity!

Lord have mercy on such as we…

Baa, baa, baa!”

But surely there was too much relish in it—reaffirmation—vigour. Even freshness. It sounded more like a dawn chorus. Its style might have been better suited to a song from the sixties whose words I couldn't remember but whose title declared it rigorously opposed to any thought of doom, even doom in conjunction with a spree.

New World in the Morning
.

That in turn reminded me of a novel I had read in childhood, one set on the eve of the American Civil War, by Robert Hardy Andrews. (Old Memorybags!)
Great Day in the Morning
.

Scarlett would have approved.
New World in the Morning
!
Great Day in the Morning
! Tomorrow was—oh, irrefutably—another day. Scarlett had been determined to make good and, whatever her failings, most people over the past sixty years or so had eventually come to admire her.

Were things any worse for me than they had been for her?

I was only thirty-six. Not all roads lead to Tara but all roads lead out of Kilburn. And I had conceivably half a century in which to explore a variety of them. I mean—if I decided not to jump.

And conceivably half a century in which to meet many of my fellow travellers. Potentially, there were thousands out there who could learn to love me, both for what I was and for what I might become; thousands whom I could learn to love back, equally.

Wasn't it even possible that, one of these days, Matt and Ella would forgive me…allow me to grow close again?

Also, I could get another dog. A stray who, like myself, would be looking only for a fresh start and who'd want to make the very best out of whatever came her way. Or his.

Yes, a fresh start, a new world, a great day…in the morning.

And besides, of course, there was something else I really ought to think about.

Would there be any sea in heaven?

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2011 by Stephen Benatar

Cover design by Gabriela Sahagun

ISBN: 978-1-4976-8230-6

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