A New Lease

She wouldn't let him be who he was. Suzanne is so meticulous and rigid in her space that he felt  unwanted. Too messy and disorganized, too dynamic. Jory asked if he could have his old space back but Karyn had made her home there now and wasn't about to move again. She'd refinished the kitchen floors and resurfaced the cabinets and hooked up a portable washer. He did end up finding a really great apartment, a gorgeous 5 1/2 in the Plateau that came with appliances and had a great little garden with direct light. Rare here. More importantly, he can build his art there and make a joyful noise without feeling like a child being scolded by his mother. Strange how people suddenly become un-engaged. Jory tries to remember what it was that pulled them into each other's kinesphere, spinning tight circles in a rapidly increasing rhythm until they spun out completely, adrift in solar systems universes apart. Light fades. Meaning distorts. Truth wins out in the end, however discomfiting it is. To make a life with someone, to share a home, a heart, a plan for a mutually exclusive future built on what, exactly. Jory doesn't know how to begin again except by beginning. Again. A new space, new light, new work, newly un-engaged. He reaches back for the idea of what he thought he was bringing forward in his life with Suzanne and comes to realize that this, this coming forward, with or without her, is what matters. Suddenly starting over is less about failure and all about rebirth. Another opportunity to become who he is.

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