When Never Comes

by Barbara Davis

Sweetwater, Virginia November 29, 2016 Christy-Lynn stared at the sea of papers scattered about her on the bed, documents hastily scooped from Stephen’s safe the night she left Clear Harbor. The idea had been to get them into some kind of order. Sadly, they were more of a mess than when she’d started. Last night’s dinner with Missy and Dar had been a pleasant surprise, but when Dar asked if she’d given any thought to what her future plans might be, she had frozen. The truth was she hadn’t the foggiest idea. She had her editing business—ten or twelve clients she had cultivated over the years—but that could hardly be described as a life. Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure what she had shared with Stephen even qualified as a life. She’d been living with her head in the sand and not just since his death. But she couldn’t just keep hiding. Downstairs, Missy was closing up her kitchen and seeing to her guests, while Dar was somewhere downtown, selling crystals and new age books. Life was going on all around her—without