Remember

Remember

By Geoffrey Wilkins

“Little girls shouldn't play with older boys” her mother would tell her.

“Well, mother is long gone now” she thinks as she smokes her fourth cigarette in a row, sitting by the window and watching the rain fall.

She remembers a time from her youth when love was exciting and an adventure. She remembers the songs that told her all she needed in the world was love. So she had loved and it felt good, but now, two divorces later love doesn't seem so good.

“Love always runs out” she thinks, as she starts her fifth cigarette “ the trick is to die before that happens”

She had loved too much and too hard and it had run out. Twice.

“I can love again” she thinks “but this time I will do it right, I will pace myself and I won't let it consume me. It only takes a little head to manage the heart”

She finishes her cigarette and notices how cold the weather is outside. She stands up to make some tea as she thinks of love, her youth and how she misses it. She longs for it too much. She knows she is going to get hurt again no matter what plan she makes or how much she fools herself because love is not rational and can't be planned out.

She returns to her spot with her tea and understands finally after so many years that even if it ends disastrously, love is worth it and it really is all you need.

She takes out her sixth cigarette and strikes a match to light it. Her house blows up. She had left the gas open.

When her husband, who she was divorcing, finds out she's dead he is horrified but at the same time slightly relieved

The Bloody End.