-18 - - Q -desire-

But now, at the edge, she felt a new desire. Not for youth or love or escape. Something stranger.

That, she realized, was desire enough.

“Teacher Q,” the girl said, breathless. “I ran all the way. You left without your breakfast.” -18 - Q -Desire-

She wanted to answer the question.

Her name was Elara, and for seventy-three years she had lived in the gray village of Llowen, where the sky was always the color of wet slate and the sea below gnashed its teeth against the rocks. The villagers called her “Q” because she had been the question master in the schoolhouse for four decades. She had answered every why, how, and when until her voice grew thin as thread. But she had never once answered the only question that mattered to her. But now, at the edge, she felt a new desire

The question hung in the salt air, simple and devastating. That, she realized, was desire enough