This Is Where It Ends

by Marieke Nijkamp

So we run. Not just in circles around the track. We run toward all that is waiting for us. We run together while we still can.

When Dad was at his worst, he’d call me every name he could think of and wouldn’t stop until he felt like he’d won.

This is where it ends.

But Abuelo always said there were two types of people in this world: those who belong to the soil and the good, rich earth, planting their seeds to blossom, and those who belong to the road and the endless horizons, carrying their home on their shoulders wherever they go. Life turned Autumn into one of the wandering, and she was becoming restless.