Darius has been retired long enough now that I can write about it without making it dramatic, which is itself an improvement — drama was most of what Darius did, if we’re being honest, and honesty tends to be what’s left once there’s nothing else to do with the time.

Something was said to a specific person, in the street. I’m not repeating it here — not to protect anyone, both people involved already know what was said, and repeating it now would serve nothing. It was bad enough said once.

What Darius could never manage was going back. That’s not a character flaw so much as a structural one — going back takes a humility that wasn’t available while Darius was active. Retirement installed it, apparently. I’m not recommending retirement as a method, but credit where it’s due: perspective from the other side of something turns out to be a genuinely real thing.

So I went back. Simon went back. Neither of us had said a word of it, and both of us cleaned up something we hadn’t spilled, on Darius’s behalf, and said what needed saying — properly, this time. The apology was accepted in full, no conditions attached, and the friendship sits exactly where it stood before any of this happened.

That gratitude is real, the kind I can actually feel. Darius said a thing. I fixed it. The friendship holds. That’s the account, and it goes on the record because it belongs there.