We Begin at the End

by Chris Whitaker

“I just wish there was a middle, you know. Because that’s where people live. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing … sink or swim like that. Most people just tread water, and that’s enough. Because when you’re sinking, you’re pulling us down with you.”

Better and worse. Bad and good. None of us are any one thing. We’re just a collection of the best and worst things we’ve done.

“The minister said we begin at the end. It would have made for easier years, if I thought for one second Sissy was somewhere better than a small wooden box. I try though, every Sunday I try.”

Devoid of emotion, adrenaline, the human traits that ruined finesse.

She kept her hands down, just closed her eyes as he yelled and screamed the kind of truths that no longer hurt her.