Allegiant

“I know,” she says.



We walk at the back of the group, past the still-abandoned buildings with their dark windows, over the bridge that spans the river-marsh.



“Yeah, sometimes life really sucks,” she says. “But you know what I’m holding on for?”



I raise my eyebrows.



She raises hers, too, mimicking me.



“The moments that don’t suck,” she says. “The trick is to notice them when they come around.”



Then she smiles, and I smile back, and we climb the stairs to the train platform side by side.



Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage.



But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.