lesson learned

"Falling down ain't falling down if you don't cry when you hit the floor."

The picture still looked the same. A happy couple, holding hands, beaming at each other. For a second she thought she should display it somewhere just because those two people looked so happy. But everything had changed now so she couldn't do that.

It had been nearly two months since he moved out. It was quiet. She didn't protest and he didn't explain. She just came home one day and found him packing his bags. He left a message on the answering machine the next day. She still hadn't listened to it. Instead, she moved on. She put away anything left of his or that reminded her of him. She put it in a box. She mailed it to his sister. She learned how to cook for one again. She never forgot to take out the trash. She went out with friends and laughed.

But today she couldn't ignore it. There he was staring her in the face. There they were. Happy. In love. She clutched this picture she found. She found it stuck in her favorite book but she knew he had put it there. Put it there for this exact moment. Almost in a daze she went to the den, to the answering machine.

As he talked, tears started rolling. She wanted to sit on the couch but those extra three feet seemed so far away. So she sunk down right there. Behind her couch, hands grasping desperately at the hardwood floors. There was nothing to hold onto and she cried.