How To Survive This Fairytale

Chapter 51

Fifty-One

Watching your husband preen his feathers.

Watching your husband get dirty in his garden, your garden.

Watching your husband move into your house, which he helped build, which makes it your house, together.

Watching Red take down her first elk. Watching Granny slow down a little more, a little more, a little more.

Watching Gertrude rule a kingdom with an even hand.

Watching Gertrude do what she was always meant to do, with no curse or king to clip her wings.

Watching generations of Petunias steal from your garden.

Watching your husband take to the sky. Watching him emerge from the water, a man, coming toward you. Always coming toward you.