The Price of Salt

by Patricia Highsmith

But there was not a moment when she did not see Carol in her mind, and all she saw, she seemed to see through Carol.

Carol was like a secret spreading through her, spreading through this house, too, like a light invisible to everyone but her.

I don’t want to die yet without knowing you. Do you feel the same way, Carol?

Then she kissed Therese on the lips, as if they had kissed a thousand times before. “Don’t you know I love you?” Carol said.

Happiness was like a green vine spreading through her, stretching fine tendrils, bearing flowers through her flesh. She had a vision of a pale-white flower, shimmering as if seen in darkness, or through water. Why did people talk of heaven, she wondered.

And she did not have to ask if this were right, no one had to tell her, because this could not have been more right or perfect.

What was it to love someone, what was love exactly, and why did it end or not end? Those were the real questions, and who could answer them.

I say I love you always, the person you are and the person you will become. I would say it in a court if it would mean anything to those people or possibly change anything, because those are not the words I am afraid