The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 3

by Beth Brower

I, however, would have settled for him passing rather loudly.

“Miss Lion, I bless you to slay the dragon.”

my happiness has to be separate from the things beyond my control.”

“I carry more ghosts than you could imagine, Miss Lion. I know the weight. It is no life.”

Life never fails you in this one thing: There is always an unexpected sleight of hand.

Two walks a day, several hours of reading, perhaps one visit with someone I enjoy. One dinner or entertainment per week if you must, possibly two, but please let there be reading.”

“Is it so unreasonable to expect a small amount of perfection from life?”

Embarrassing and delightful. My life, in other words.

This sort of battle, this kind of argument, this laughter when we realise we are saying the same thing—this is what I wish from life.

He smiled. I smiled. How wonderful a thing to find one’s friends.

But I am not the heroine of a novel. I am flesh, blood—interesting enough on occasion, with dull edges here and there, living a life of the expected and the unexpected, the wanted and the worst of the unwanted.

“Either a friendship with you is the grandest thing in the world, Miss Lion, or you are delusional. Which is it?”