The Restoration Rival novel · Chapter 7 of 21

Chapter 7: The First Crack

I didn't go back inside.

I walked Wen to the corner and put her in a taxi and told her to text me when she got to the dorm.

Then I walked the whole way back to campus.

It took an hour and ten minutes.

The gate was locked so I went over the low wall by the bike shed.

I slept in my clothes.

In the morning I had a seven o'clock session on the pitch.

The coach had me on the sidelines because of the stitches, so I did the drills with the second string and no contact.

I dropped the first pass.

I dropped the second.

They weren't hard. They were the kind of pass I'd been catching since I was twelve.

The ball came in and I saw it and my hands just didn't close.

"Su Ken."

"Again."

We ran it again. Same thing.

By the end of the session the coach pulled me aside.

"Sleep."

"I slept."

"Go to the clinic and get that leg looked at again."

"It's fine."

"Su Ken."

"I'll sleep tonight."

I went to the studio at nine.

The arts building was mostly empty on a Tuesday.

Two painters on the third floor. The print room dark.

My bench was in the corner by the window, and the celadon bowl was on it in its padded box.

I put on my apron.

I set the bowl on the turntable and turned on the lamp.

The four cracks were clean. I'd looked at them forty times.

The main break went through the body from the rim to the foot.

I had the adhesive mixed in a small glass dish.

I had the clamps laid out in a row.

I picked up the first piece.

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