These Tangled Vines

by Julianne MacLean

Maybe the fates have decided that we stole a lifetime of happiness that one summer. We used it all up and there is no more left for us.

Money shouldn’t be the reason I stay with Alan, at the cost of my dignity and self-esteem.

forced myself to reach out and take hold of his hand, because I didn’t want to become like him—a person with a soul that couldn’t forgive.

I thought about his fears and insecurities and began to feel the first small traces of forgiveness, like one

or two isolated raindrops that made you look to the sky before a downpour.