Page 44 - WTP Vol. VIII #3

Ride Share (continued from preceding page) turn around and face things.
Children? I asked.
Two, Kathy said. They were instrumental when we reached the crossroads that you inevitably face. We’ve always decided things as a family.
Not everything, Jim said. You make it sound as if we always agreed.
The thing is we made it through. Reflecting on it now you understand that you have to lay personal wants aside to make it work. Are you married?
I didn’t want to get into an extended back and forth
regarding my personal status so to save myself any further questioning I lied and said, No, not married, and left it at that.
Kathy sent off a volley of realistic assessment over the ability for two people to stay together through good and bad, saying that even with truth and self-knowl- edge there was no such thing as life without pain.
Jim grunted in the affirmative, and reaching the parking lot at the sea bluff, I pulled in near the staircase leading to the sand. I shut down the engine and got out as they did, said goodbye and watched them descend the steps hand in hand moving slowly toward the fog hugging the shoreline. They were halfway there when the sand yellowed and the
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Alluring Fascination. Is This Enclosure Impenetrable? oil on birch 48'' x 36'' By Todd Brugman