Heaven Adjacent

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

People come into our lives, she thought, and it’s not always a forever kind of thing, and not always meant to be. Not every deal is for keeps.

Living like I’m living now seems boring. Then you get older and you’re wearing the scars of all that excitement you’ve chased after your whole life, and then what you used to call boring starts to look serene. Then you start to view boring as a lofty goal. But maybe you’ll get to be my age and still love the city. Plenty of people do. The idea is that we get to do what suits us. The idea is not that what suits me has to suit you, too. If you can accept where I want to live, I can accept where you want to live.