Saints for All Occasions

by J. Courtney Sullivan

John sometimes wondered if anyone, upon being told to relax in such a manner, had ever actually succeeded at relaxing.

Now she saw that marriage was like being in a three-legged race with the same person for the rest of your life. Your hopes, your happiness, your luck, your moods, all yoked to his.

The family looked different to her now. When one of them vanished, those who remained were transformed into something new.

It wasn’t right that you could only understand your parents’ pain once you’d experienced the things they had, and by then, in her case anyway, they were gone.