Please Undo This Hurt (4 page)

Authors: Seth Dickinson

“Stick around,” I say, “and I'll tell you.”

Right then I get one more glimpse past the armor: he's frustrated, he's glad, he's all knotted up, because I won't go first, and whatever going first means, he doesn't want to leave me to go second. He wouldn't have to care anymore, of course. But he still cares. That's how compassion works.

If I had a purpose here, well, I suppose it's done.

“You're taking a break from work?” He closes the phone and pushes it back to me. “What's up with that? Can I help?”

When I go to take the phone he makes a little gesture, like he wants to take my hand, and I make a little gesture like I want him toâand between the two of us, well, we manage.

*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *

I still have the number, of course. Maybe you worry that it works. Maybe you're afraid I'll use it, or that Nico will, when things go bad. Things do so often go bad.

You won't know if I use it, of course, because then I'll never have told you this story, and you'll never have read it. But that's a comfort, isn't it? That's enough.

The story's still here. We go on.

About the Author

SETH DICKINSON
's short fiction has appeared in
Analog
,
Asimov's
,
Clarkesworld
,
Lightspeed
,
Strange Horizons
,
Beneath Ceaseless Skies,
among others. He is an instructor at the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers, winner of the 2011 Dell Magazines Award, and a lapsed student of social neuroscience. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
is his first novel. You can sign up for email updates
here
.