Page 27 (1/2)

Twelve years, eight months, three weeks, four days, twelve hours, and thirty-seven minutes

That was how long it had been sincethrough my chest

That was how long it had been sincee

That was how long he’d been gone

I lifted uard station The corrections officer took our driver’s licenses, and Nora prattled off all the usual answers about ere there It was the sa and dance One I kneell after…

Twelve years, eight ht minutes

He pressed a button to lift the uard station That here my familiarity of the process ended

I’d never been allowed through the second gate, despite the fact that I’d spent two hours every other week sitting in h Nora wasn’t there for a visit And I wasn’t there to war he was somewhere nearby

“Breathe,” Nora ordered after the guard had instructed her to follow the road around to the side of the building

I couldn’t breathe though I could barely keep er involuntary but rather an arduous task thata boulder up a mountain

He was in there My Ramsey, the boy who had branded my soul in ways time could never heal

Tears flooded ined the seventeen-year-old with chocolate-brown eyes and shaggy hair Rah He was almost thirty now, but I still dreamed of him as the tall, lanky boy who had once held

For us, love was the original four-letter word

I was in fifth grade the first ti in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G” We were told first coe No oneemotion ould ever experience

As I got older, I heard people preach that love is patient and love is kind And I could have jumped on that train if the Bible verse didn’t also contain the biggest lie of all: Love never fails

For Ramsey, it did

Love failed him

I failed him