AFTER LIFE<\/strong>
\nWord Count: 315<\/p>\n

She carries him around in her hip pocket, like a wallet or a credit card collection. He doesn\u2019t mind, he\u2019s happy that she cares enough to do it. It makes him feel alive.<\/p>\n

Together they still go to movies, though not as often as they did. And too, she still picks out the gushy girlie ones that always bored him silly. He doesn\u2019t really mind it anymore; he watches her instead, delighting in the little bursts of giggles, the way she holds her tears back to the point of breaking into sobs that make everyone turn their head around. It makes him smile.<\/p>\n

He smiles more easily these days. He\u2019s more alert to what goes on around him. He doesn\u2019t have the stress of worrying about his job, the mortgage, the way she never could balance the budget and came up short almost every month. Since he\u2019s been gone, she\u2019s learned to handle money very well. He knew she could and would.<\/p>\n

He still hates the smell of liver which even though she\u2019d make it for herself when he was away for a couple days it lived forever in the curtains and his favorite chair. She\u2019d deny it always, but now he knew the truth. It makes him laugh.<\/p>\n

He likes the way things are, the way that he\u2019s been feeling. The things he sees he never saw before. The Impatiens in the flower bed that lead up to the house. The gleam of wooden chairs and tables on Saturday afternoons and the scent of lemon oil. The quiet peace of weekday mornings after eight o\u2019clock. The way she watched him drive away each morning, and she still pretends she can.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s happy, yes, relaxed and worry-free. But in the nights he hears her softly breathing, feels the wetness of her tears. And what he wouldn\u2019t give, he\u2019d gladly take the burdens back, what he wouldn\u2019t do, to reach out and pull her close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFTER LIFE Word Count: 315 She carries him around in her hip pocket, like a wallet or a credit card collection. He doesn\u2019t mind, he\u2019s happy that she cares enough to do it. It makes him feel alive. Together they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,19],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-days-2011","category-magical-realism","tag-magical-realism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}