The People We Keep

by Allison Larkin

I wonder if maybe all you do is meet people and lose them and your smile fades the further you go because you have to carry the space they leave.

It’s the first time I’ve ever thought of getting older in a real way, where I can picture myself as someone different, not just me right now in a different situation. There’s a new person waiting for me to catch up, and maybe she’s happy. Maybe she belongs right where she is.

I say that it’s amazing how much you can miss people you only got to be with for one tiny little perfect bit of time; how a place where you barely got to live can be the closest thing you’ve ever had to home.

We have people we get to keep, who won’t ever let us go. And that’s the most important part. That’s what’s true.