Intaglio: Dragons All The Way Down Read Online Free PDF Page A

ease with people... a way about her.  A skill that
would’ve served her well in life.  If she’d lived, that is...”
    Cole’s eyelids
fluttered as he saw the first flicker of lightning on the horizon, and he was
gone.
    : : : : : : : :
: :
    The room's deep
chairs and benign, hotel-room style paintings, had completely faded in Cole’s
mind, replaced by Hanna Thomas.
    It was a summer
afternoon, and Cole’s sister was laughing and happy, the way she’d looked when
she’d graduated from high school.  The two of them were at the cove two or
three clicks beyond their parents’ house, cliff jumping.  Thirteen-year-old
Cole was in the water below, watching as Hanna walked to the edge of the cliff
face, high above him, grinning down.  Her voice echoed down as she called out
defiantly.  Cole’s sister, as always, was fearless.  (Tempting fate.)  In this
memory, he floated face-up in the water, watching with his heart in his throat
as Hanna threw herself from the precipice.
    Her body formed
a jackknife halfway down, stretching out like an arrow as she plunged into the
inky depths.
    Next to Cole’s
chair in this other place Frank Thomas stood up to leave.  Cole stumbled to
follow, sitting upright.
    “Wait just a
moment, Cole,” Marta said, pulling him from the memory before Hanna
resurfaced.  “I need to talk to you for a little longer.”
    He blinked
himself back into the therapist’s office.  His father stood, putting a square
fist out to shake Marta’s hand, assuring her that he looked forward to the next
session.  She gave him a pleasant goodbye, waiting with patient solemnity. 
Cole reached to pick up his coat.
    “Hold on,” Marta
repeated, hand lifting as if she expected him to bolt.
    At the door, his
father turned back, his face dark and brooding like the day beyond.
    “It’s okay,”
Cole said, “Ava's coming by to pick me up anyhow, just in case...”
    He left the rest
unspoken.
    “Thanks again,
Frank,” Marta said brightly, waiting for him to go. 
    As he headed for
the front foyer, the therapist peeked out the doorway, calling out to the
secretary at the desk.
    “Just hold my
next appointment for five minutes, all right?”
    Pulling the door
closed behind her, she gestured to the chair. Cole anxiously sat back down. 
There was a long, uncomfortable moment when she didn’t speak, just watched
him.  She took a heavy breath, as if measuring and weighing something.
    “This isn’t
going to work,” she said.
    Cole’s eyes
widened, his heart starting to pound.  He was trying here.  He wanted to get
past his issues... for Ava and for himself.  Wanted to—
    “Cole, if you
want to resolve things with your father, then you’ll actually need to
participate.  I can’t...” she frowned, leaning back, her fingers running over
the seam on the chair's arm rest, “I can’t do this for you.  I can’t make you
better.  The work is yours, and I’m not sure you’re at a place that you can do
it yet.”
    Cole felt
himself sinking.  It was like being dragged beneath the water's surface and
drowning, the rocks closer than they appeared.
    “I don’t...”
Cole managed to say, “I don’t know how to try.”
    Marta nodded,
sitting back up.
    “I can help you
with that part... but only if you want to.  So I need to know,” she said, hands
opening before her, “is this something you want to do?  Is this worthwhile for
you?”
    Cole swallowed,
feeling Oliver’s words in the room with them.
    “Y-yeah, I do.”
    Marta nodded.
    “Alright then,”
she said calmly.  “The first thing we need to do is start meeting together.”
    Cole frowned in
confusion.
    “Sorry… what?”
    “We need to talk
– just you and me – about your feelings.  About whatever it is that makes it so
difficult for you to talk to him here,” she said, gesturing to the now-closed
door, “and then when your father is here, you need to be willing to share that
with him.  So what do you think?”
    For a moment
Cole