The Map of Us

by Jules Preston

‘I never want to leave your side,’ he said. It was a statement and a question and a plea and a proposal and a warm breath on a cold day and a desperate heartbeat. ‘Yes,’ she said. And that was enough. True to his word, he never did.

She kissed each of her grandchildren on the head. She told her daughter not to cry. Then she went to bed and did not come down for breakfast. She was elsewhere. Looking for a man with one name and a wheelbarrow who said that he would love her forever. She would not need to travel far. He was waiting for her.