Before I Let Go

by Marieke Nijkamp

“It is enough,” she repeated in a gasp as she tried to regain her breath. “It doesn’t have to be a happily ever after or happily always. Just a happily once. A happily sometimes. Hope. That’d make our pain worth it.” For a few seconds, she looked intensely sad. Then she curled her fingers around my hand. “Come on, we’ll tell each other stories.”