Writing and Photography by Jeff E. Brown

You said it would be easy. Submit and follow instructions, then I would see everything clearly. A lifted veil, as you put it.

I still hear your clipped tones telling me “You deserve this. Think of what you’ve been through.”

Lying awake now, your entreaties rush back, begging for a reconsideration. Was I too eager to believe something I shouldn’t have or were you promising something that could never be?

I suppose I could punish myself more. I do deserve it, but I am no martyr, merely a practical man who knows his limits. I crossed a line thanks to you and I have to answer for my own gullibility, among other more sinister failures.

Your payback will come-perhaps in a way you might never fathom. I don’t believe in karma so much as I do the patiently considered delivery of justice.

© 2021 Jeff E. Brown. All rights reserved.