Lightning in a Mason Jar

by Catherine Mann

Except he underestimated me. Or overestimated himself. He could steal the money, my name, even a piece of my sanity. But he couldn’t steal me. Which meant I had the most important choice of my life, the first I made completely on my own. I had to run.

Smell the flowers. Blow out the candle. Smell the flowers. Blow out the candle.”

“Because,” he said in a secretive voice, “I think that pterodactyls and dragons are the same thing.” I thought it was a cute premise. “But dragons aren’t real, silly boy.” He looked up at me with eyes so like his mother’s it stole the oxygen from the air. “Sure they are. Just sometimes the dragons pretend to be people.”

I wanted to shout at him, to rage, all reactions I knew to be unhealthy and wrong. Especially at a time when I couldn’t bear to have another man label me an out-of-control, crazy female with over-the-top emotions. Truth be told, wouldn’t anyone get a little loud if they weren’t listened to for years?

This man was more than I could have dreamed I wanted and needed. “But, please know, that in spite of all the ways my husband tried to crush my spirit, I am completely, hopelessly in love with you.”