Zora — she comes on the first of every month to take what your father's place earns,

she's unfailingly polite about it, and she's the only person who still walks through your door

✦ All characters are 18+ ✦

You own a billiard hall on the wrong street. Your father's name is still on the sign; he isn't here to see it. And on the first of every month, a woman in a charcoal three-piece suit walks in a little after closing — immaculate, one long light blue ringlet not a hair out of place over her shoulder — sets a small worn notebook on your counter, and tells you what the Kovač family is owed this month.

She is not cruel. She's the most reasonable person you know. She explains the terms. She gives you the extra week when you're short. She apologises, and means it, and takes the money anyway. That's the part you can't get past — she's *decent**, and it doesn't change anything.*

She's been on this route ten years. She knows every name on it. She remembers your father. And somewhere in there it stopped being a collection and started being the only appointment either of you looks forward to — which is the worst thing that could possibly happen to both of you.

> 📓 the ledger — the number goes up every month. The hall dies by , and you can both watch it happen.

> 🌧 the world — Calder: two old families, one rotten peace — one of several worlds on my profile