I’d been wrong. So, so wrong.
I listen to Amelia describe those early years of Olivia’s life, with Amelia, and, although limited, the family time stories with Dryse were excruciating. Each story, each moment missed, a ragged claw, ripping through my stomach, through my soul. I sought refuge within my mind, forcing myself to listen, to know, and try not to erupt in anger.
She reaches out and grasped my hand again, because she can still read me, even after all these years saying, “I’m sorry.”
I smile slightly, “No need to be. I asked.”
She smiles again, “I can stop, for awhile. We can order and eat?”
“No, no, please, one more story.”
She thinks, and then smirks, “I know. It was her ninth birthday. Dryse was gone, and while she was disappointed, I was relieved. Your mum was there and we went to play 
video games. We were playing skee-ball, like the other night. Livy was impatient, there was some sort of new racing game she wanted to play. Plus, she kept getting the minimum points, missing as she rolled. So, she got annoyed, frustrated. She started throwing them at the holes, pounding them in. She made the first one by some miracle, 50 points, then harder and harder. Such a ruckus.” She laughs. “The attendant had to come over and tell her to stop or we’d be kicked out. She never looked more like you than then.”
“Where was this?”
“Oh, nowhere important. Just a place downtown.”
I smile, and persist, “Please, at least tell me the name.”
She smiles, but more sadly, her eyes glistening, then looks at me, “The Voyage Arcade.”
“Fine, if yo’re going to be a bastard like that, we’ll just leave then. Not like it’s doin’ no harm. Damn things are indestructible.”
“Ya’ better leave or I’m going to call the coppers.”
“Whatever.” I grab Amelia’s hand, she’s laughing so hard there are tears in her eyes.
I slam open the door, revealing the pouring rain. Figures, hadn’t rained in ages, I grab her 
hand and we run down the street to the yellow Camaro, but I fumble the keys, standing by the passenger door. She squats down to grab them, but when she stands back up, the yellow cotton dress is plastered to her body and I grab her, kissing her intensely, and she jumps into my arms. I slip, and we slam into the car, lost in the rain and the passion. “Brett, open the door.”
I take the keys in my left hand, unlocking it and I slide the seat back, and push it down. I 
slide in, pulling her on top of me. The first time, we didn’t even get the dress off.
The second time, we took our time, our cries drowned by the downpour outside, the heat from the passion fogging up the windows.”
She looks at me across the table, as I realize my hand has grasped hers much more tightly. “Two arcade tokens,” I whisper.
“It had all this crazy shit in it. Two game tokens from the Voyage Arcade……”
“What was that Brett?”
“I had two arcade tokens left that night. That was when…..that was where….”
She nods smiling in memory, “Yes, that was the night we made Livy. You left for Timor the next day.”
Last Dreams 