The Last Word

by Taylor Adams

Opinions are like assholes, the saying goes, and the internet has millions of both.

It’s nice to submerge yourself in someone else’s world, to luxuriate in the handcrafted details and admire the false ceilings.

It’s not about the story’s quality. It’s about distracting herself, putting her mind on a treadmill. Anything is better than being alone with her thoughts.

But I hope there’s something after death, too. Because I know you’re right, that being immortal would be agony. But I guess . . . I guess I just want to know you for longer than forty years. It’s not enough time.

You never know how finite your time together really is until it’s up.

Authors are chameleons. Pretenders. Poseurs.

Anticipation is always worse than reality.

Even the stars will die.

It’s all her, the good and the bad alike, because we can’t pick and choose the pieces of who we are.

You can polish words on paper all you want. But not speech. Talking has a special, in-the-moment honesty. The flaws make it real.”