I live in an alternate timeline (The Mistake), one that is muted and dusty, only half filled out. Made flaccid by failure and regret, because to expand it to its fullest would be to bump up against the feelings of worthlessness and desolation. Better to keep it only half-lit, so the suffering is only half-experienced.
In the original timeline (The Way It Should Be), Lincoln and Veronica live in a perpetual summer, crossing the United States in a gold Dodge Stratus, one happy tourist stop at a time, taking weekend day trips to apple farms and doting on their small children. It is perpetually that time when she said to him, “Even though we have been together for years, it always feels brand-new with you,” and there was comfort for both of them in the rock-solid stability of their love.
nontraditionalapplicant.wordpress.com 