Chapter 10 - The Unblemished Horizon
Julian opened the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper torn from a spiral notebook, covered in the messy, jagged handwriting of a nine-year-old boy.
Julian, the note read.
My aunt says we have a small house near the mountains now. There is a big backyard with real grass and no glass walls anywhere. She says I can go to school in September.
I saved a seat for you at the kitchen table. My aunt makes french fries from real potatoes, not the fancy ones from the restaurant. They taste better.
You don't have to wear the blazer anymore.
Your friend,
Leo.
Julian stared at the messy blue ink on the paper for a long time until the sharp edges of the letters softened in the morning sunlight. He carefully folded the note and placed it inside his pocket, right beside his heart.
He stood up from the concrete bench, looking up at the high, towering glass buildings that dominated the Oakridge skyline. For twelve years, those towers had seemed like immovable mountains—vast, terrifying structures that dictated the lives of everyone who walked beneath their long, dark shadows.
Now, standing in the open sunlight, he realized they were just sand and silica, melted together by heat and pressure, waiting for the first honest stone to shatter them into dust.
"Where will you go, Julian?" Benson asked, standing up beside him. "The state child services department has appointed your uncle's estate as your temporary guardian, but you have options."
Julian took a deep, full breath of the cool autumn air. It burned his ribs slightly, but for the first time in his life, the air felt clean. It didn't smell like roasted rosemary, aged wagyu, or expensive Chanel perfume.
It just smelled like rain and earth.
May you like
"I think I'm going to take a trip north," Julian said, turning his face toward the blue horizon where the mountains began. "I hear the fries are better up there."
He walked away from the park, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his grey sweatshirt, leaving the glass city behind him, stepping out onto a road that was finally his own.
