The Voice Begged Again to Go

"I was thirty before me stretched the pretentous, menacing road of a new decade," he writes. "The voice begged again to go. Please, Tom, I can't stand this anymore." After a moment, Tom got up and began wrapping the unopened bottle of whiskey in the towel. They were gone, without a word. Snapped out, made accidental, isolated,. like ghosts, even from our pity.