7.

northbound & nowhere.

It was in that moment that I felt it was final. We would always be walking the same road, but no longer would we travel in the same direction. There would be no us; there could be no us. There would be you, and there would be me. I would simply stumble north going one-thousand miles a minute while you wandered west moving at a steady, indeterminate pace. We might pass one another on the way, but my wave would be drown out by the sound of your left hand's firm grasp, no matter how much it scared you. You would follow because you've always followed your heart, and that's where it was headed: out west where the coast was big, and the possibilities were bigger. It was in that moment that we let it be final. You would stand there with your eyes digging deeper into the ground under our feet. I would be wearing my yellow sweater that you gave me in a story that lacked plot, that lacked ending, that lacked all of me despite my yellow sweater. But we would be filled by this hope that if we just held on, if we just clung, we could travel on together. Mine was mostly greater than yours, but you wouldn't dare believe it. Because you're heading out west, off the deep end, and slowly, quite slowly, I'm beginning to receive it.

-Amy Sue Rudiger