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Her sadness became my tears, and her tears articulated my sadness.
She was the girl who felt everything, and I was the man who felt nothing at all.
I hadn’t known God’s name until the day my daughter was born, and I felt too foolish to even offer him a prayer.
I was a realist. I believed in what I saw, not what I hoped might be, but still, there was a part of me that looked at that small figure and wished I knew how to pray.
For a split second in time, I felt a little of her pain while she encountered my coldness, and neither one of us seemed to mind.
wanted to hold her, but still have her move freely in my arms.
This life is short, and you never know how many chapters you have left in your novel, Graham. Live each day as if it’s the final page. Breathe each moment as if it’s the final word. Be brave, my son. Be brave.”
Ever since he mentioned that feelings for me lived inside of his chest, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
“Loneliness is a liar,” Graham told me, sitting down on the edge of his bed as he spoke. “It’s toxic and deadly most of the time. It forces people to believe they are better off with the devil himself than being alone, because somehow being alone means a person failed. Somehow being alone means a person isn’t good enough. So, more often than not, the poison of loneliness seeps in and makes a person believe that any kind of attention must stand for love. Fake love that is built on a bed of loneliness will fail—I should know. I’ve been alone all my life.”
They could taste the heart of every word that bled on the page, and by the end, their palate would be satisfied.
She needed to know my father.
He placed his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “Just don’t let go. If you let go, I’ll run. I’ll let it overtake me. Please, Lucille, just don’t let go.”
“If you need to fall, fall into me.”
“Stay with me. Tonight,
“It’s you,” I whispered, our lips still slightly touching. “My greatest hope is, and always will be, you.”
In that moment, he promised her all of him, even the cracks—they were, after all, where the light shined through.
I was finally planting my roots in a home so warm.
