Those Precious Moments (Day 96)

Breathing was hard. Short shallow breaths were okay. Anything more than that triggered sharp pains like knives running up the outer edges of my rib cage. Even though I knew the pain was out there waiting for me to make a mistake, breathing was so automatic that I would forget and then the knives would cut again.

I don't know how long I lay there. Moving was a recipe for pain. The only thing I could do was lay there and think.

First I ran through my ex-girlfriends. I remembered Ashley's grin that seemed to eat up her whole face. Sometimes it could flip from mischievous to malicious in an instant. I remembered Donna's strut. She wore the tightest jeans she could find but somehow she always managed to dance. I guess that was her thing. Even confined, she danced. Lastly, but most dear to my heart, was Heather. She was a cow-girl through and through. She lived the cliche with hat, truck, and guitar. By campfire light, she sang the saddest songs.

With a pang in my chest, I wondered if any of them still lived.