”“It’s got an image as an industrial city,” Mike replied, “but since the Clean Air Acts in the early sixties, it’s actually been very clea.... Mrs. Thatcher did for the sprawling heavy industry in the eighties. There’s still a lot of special steel made, but most of the foundries are gone. It’s quite compact ... population over half a million, though. Noticeably ... well, it’s said to be a collection of villages, and it’s possible to identify distinct areas within the city. A friendly place .... After building a fire, he lay propped against a fallen log and watched the flames. He was thinking about her. How her hair shone in the summer sun. How her beautiful blue green eyes would sparkle when she laughed. All the meals they shared together. And her beautiful smile. He slept restlessly that night, tossing and turning in the dried leaves until he was certain he was never going to get a single minute of sleep that night. Every noise of the forest woke him. His very breathing woke him. “But tell me, was father a fucking Sex Demon!? Huh?!” The smile was a scam.“Well... no, but...”“How many cocks did he have, Mother? Because mine has two, and they’re both so big that they drag on the floor despite him being the size of two men. And did you have to uproot your entire life to move with him to a cursed hell where every sensation is heightened a hundredfold and every day feels like two years? Did your wedding dress look like this, Mother? Did it?”Aranel’s point was made by spinning. With another sigh the eight year old child stood up, slung the blanket over her shoulder, and headed back inside. She gave one more glance, as she so often did, to the fence which separated her back yard from the Macons’. Right next door, and it might as well be a million miles.What was that? Paper airplane?6:12 A.M., Sunday, May 10, 2015Honolulu, HIPaul Macon couldn’t see into the Akrons’ back yard. The fence was lined with foliage on his side of the fence, and on hers. This was why, the.