dishonored

It took an entire desert to contain his shame.

So he went there to wander, dark-hearted and despairing because he had just abandoned himself.

Not 2 days ago in a noisy saloon hotel room, he and his boy sat together, ignoring the sin surrounding them. Of course, he never intended to avoid it, they stayed at this particular establishment on their way, specifically because of the reputation it gained among the men for the nightly activities which took place in one of the rooms for a fee, which he had prepared a day or so earlier through the sale of a couple of items of clothing that no longer fit the child. Maturity pays.

So they sat on the edge of the bed, and he read him passages from the Bible. A continuation of a new nightly ritual he had developed in the hope to teach the boy to read and fill his head with some sense, both of which he had not prioritized himself growing up. And he asked him:

"Why doesn't being good make me happy?"

It never failed that a stumper would come out of that boys mouth just before bedtime. He never had an answer for the kid, his mother always did.

He hung his head and kissed him, left him alone in while he went to partake in earned company, and he fell asleep in a strange woman's bed while the place was robbed by a violent man,

and his son was left for dead.