what I asked.”
“I know.”
I looked at her.
“No.
I don’t wish the entire trip away.”
“Why?”
“Because you went into the ocean.”
She smiled.
“That was pretty great.”
“And Liam took that picture.”
“Crooked horizon.”
“Apparently art.”
She laughed.
I continued.
“I wish you had gotten all the good parts without the betrayal
afterward.
But I don’t want Gwen’s mistake to own the whole memory.”
Maya nodded.
“Me neither.”
That may be the final lesson.
People who hurt us can occupy so much space in the story that they begin
to own chapters they did not create.
Gwen did not create Maya’s courage on that beach.
She did not create Liam’s loyalty.
She did not create the laughter in the Gulf.
She did not create the yellow dress.
She only interrupted those things.
For a while.
Then life continued.
And the photographs remained.
Not damaged.
