When You Disappeared

by John Marrs

‘There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.’ —Franz Kafka

‘Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant.’ —Paulo Coelho

I knew it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d remained in that house another week, month or for the next fifty years. After all the punches and kicks I’d taken and inflicted, I could not return.

It was simply too late; we were irreparable. Stones had been cast and glasshouses lay in shards all around us. Inside I was dead; it was time for my exterior to follow suit.

She had vowed many years ago not to shed another tear over him and she wasn’t going back on her word now.

if you scratch the surface of something perfect, you’ll always find something rotten hidden beneath.

It was better to remain on my island than drown in somebody else’s sea.

I gradually figured out I shouldn’t need another person to validate my life, no matter how much I had loved or now longed for it.

I was moving in a new direction and becoming stronger, off my own back. While I was getting to know – and like – the new me, I felt guilty for thinking not all change was a bad thing.

she was the only one who ground my world to a halt just by being.

He could have protected her like a husband was supposed to protect his wife.