2021 riverrun Final PDF

it. The construction was finally done. She used to be able to count only 23 steps from
one corner of the room to another. Now, she could probably count over a hundred
(must be nice). There was a café area and a reading nook with all sorts of colors
(must be nice). She felt jealous somehow. Like she got stuck with the crappy version
as a punishment for not keeping herself together.
A man in the lounge area (there was a lounge area now— must be nice) was
playing a guitar and there was a small group of people sitting around him slightly
swaying to the beat. Her friend had a Pepsi in front of her. She said because they
wouldn’t let her have her migraine medication, they provide caffeine to ease the
headaches (must be nice). She heard the voices of her friends talking, joking, and
occasionally laughing, but all she could do was stare at the can of Pepsi. The pink
straw still had bubbles inside it.
A small part of her wished she could have experienced it this way. She didn’t
ever tell anyone though. There were a lot of things she didn’t tell anyone.
Over the years she has grown to accept her stepmother’s claims as false. Her
father finally left her stepmother and began to heal himself. Everyday she sees more
and more of the dad he once was. She sits now on her couch with a dog in her lap, a
cat behind her, and a loving man to her side. As a child she would daydream of the
day she would have a life that was hers in which she was happy. She thought of this
life so often that she almost missed the fact she had it.
Years later, she called her father, crying. “I made it dad. We made it.
Through everything. All the shit and pain I made it.” She heard him start to cry and
she knew he carried a massive amount of guilt from what happened to her during
her youth. The sound of the guilt and shame releasing from him through his tears
brought her joy. “I can’t believe I made it,” she sighed in disbelief, putting a hand to
her chest.
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