When We Were Magic

by Sarah Gailey

“Sorry I was a bitch just now,” I murmur into her hair. Paulie pats my thigh. “It’s okay,” she says. “It’s okay to be upset at upsetting things.” I’m struck by the sentiment. “It’s okay to be upset at upsetting things,” I repeat, and Paulie taps her fingers on my knee in a pattern I don’t follow. “Yeah,” she says. “I learned it from the therapist Mom and Dad took me to after Drew died. I kept apologizing for being mad or sad or whatever. She told me that it’s okay to have feelings, and that it’s okay to be upset at things like my brother dying. It helped a lot.”