Verona In Spring

Power comes in many forms: youth, desire, wealth, guilt, secrets and surprises. Verona Uyeki will experience them all.

She hated when he was late especially today. It's his pattern, Verona thought wearily; I can t change it. But I expect him to come when he says he will, and I can't change that, either.

Impatiently twisting the curtain's white silk tassels around her forefinger, she stood at her bedroom window, watching the empty street below. A frustration made fierce by waiting flared up in her and she thought, I'm running out of time for this. After three sleepless nights, I need to talk to him today.

Not completely sleepless, she reminded herself no need to over-dramatize the urgency. But Tobias always came on Monday; he'd never missed even once, and now it's Wednesday. Did he somehow sense the ultimatum awaiting him?

"A line from Mimi's last letter came to her "how did such a smart girl like you get in such a pickle?" and she thought, you don't know the half of it.

The Genet quote which she'd buried in her journal came to her, and its sweet-sour taste of exalted imprisonment struck her anew: "Anyone who hasn't experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about ecstasy at all."