Val, bashed up and quite small now,

smaller than he ever felt before

when Pug easily bullied him into

a flatness he had not felt for a long time,

so flat, the notes were like noise in his head,

no longer a melody, the exuberant feelings

remembered like a stranger peering into a

world not his, Pug met the defeated foe

and felt little jubilance, little joy, little anything

really because his greed, his distortions did

grow faster than the winnings he did take.