Goodbye Note

by J.R. Gray

“What is it about broken people that we recognize each other?” “We feel like home and whole people can never understand the pain layered under our skin. It’s too hard to explain it to them. They are exhausting.”

“It’s a reminder that there is no easy out of anything. Even death is just passing off your pain. It’s not getting rid of it. It doesn’t solve anything. And I don’t want to give my burden to anyone else.”

He feels like stardust when everyone else is ordinary.

“Arik is different.” “Everyone says that about the person they like. It’s a little cliché.” “No, I mean it. He’s this comet, and unless I catch him now, he won’t come around for another hundred years. I can’t miss my chance.”

There are people you come across in life that feel like magic. Arik was one of them, and I wanted to chase him to the end of the galaxy to absorb some of it.

“You dream too small. This, between us, is more than a ring or commitment. It’s everlasting.”

I lived for the sounds he made. I’d carry them on my mind along with every touch to my grave. Marks in time when I felt most happy.

“Better get back out there and then come home with me.” “We’re not going home.” I laughed. “Where you are is home.”