If He Had Been with Me

by Laura Nowlin

musty smell I love. The author is Irish, probably dead, and someone I’ve never heard of before today. The book is surely out of print by now, and I feel as if I am holding a lost treasure in my hands. I stop suddenly and close my eyes. This book is a treasure; I did not suspect it would be so good when I picked

I can feel the printed words seeping through my skin and into my veins, rushing to my heart and marking it forever. I want to savor this wonder, this happening of loving a book and reading it for the first time, because the first time is always the best, and I will never read this book for the first time ever again.