If I can stop one heart from breaking
If I can ease one life the aching
If I can ease one life the aching
He knows this is the tidal wave that will pull her under, and all he can do is hold tight to weather it right beside her. The only way she can heal is to bleed the wound of the lingering poison; only then, left scraped raw and vulnerable, would she be able to rebuild. So he waits and simply feels. Rocked in the waves of the wordless conversation they are holding as they cling to one another. A transpiration of emotions spurred by memories, and active echoing of thoughts and feelings. She may not be able to say the words out loud but the sentiment comes through like a beacon, and it warms Harper through and through. She need not feel the same way about him as he does for her, but to know it’s reciprocated still touches his heart. It gives him the strength and reassurance he needs to hold her through this storm, to know he’s on the right track.
“When it happened to me I didn’t want to be angry either. I felt like they’d stolen something from me that was so much more than physical. They’d taken my happiness - not because of the unhappiness of the encounter, but because I couldn’t imagine ever living without that hate, ever being happy the same way again.” In some ways his experience was different, as he’d been so full of rage at the world before it had happened. But that happy little boy from the circus had been the one to mourn, and Harper would never forget that feeling. “But being angry doesn’t mean you can’t be happy at the same time. Hating him doesn’t mean you can’t be kind to others who haven’t hurt you. Right now it might feel like all or nothing, like you won’t be able to stop feeling this every moment of every day, but tomorrow you might laugh at a dumb joke I make and for a moment you won’t remember anything but my punchline.” It’s hard to read from just her emotions what it is that she is so scared of having lost, so Harper tries to approach it from all angles as he gently rocks her. “Everyone hates the phrase ‘time heals all wounds’ but it’s true. And just like you can’t run on a broken leg, you can’t try to force yourself to be okay before it’s time. You have to ride out the storm first.”
“When it happened to me I didn’t want to be angry either. I felt like they’d stolen something from me that was so much more than physical. They’d taken my happiness - not because of the unhappiness of the encounter, but because I couldn’t imagine ever living without that hate, ever being happy the same way again.” In some ways his experience was different, as he’d been so full of rage at the world before it had happened. But that happy little boy from the circus had been the one to mourn, and Harper would never forget that feeling. “But being angry doesn’t mean you can’t be happy at the same time. Hating him doesn’t mean you can’t be kind to others who haven’t hurt you. Right now it might feel like all or nothing, like you won’t be able to stop feeling this every moment of every day, but tomorrow you might laugh at a dumb joke I make and for a moment you won’t remember anything but my punchline.” It’s hard to read from just her emotions what it is that she is so scared of having lost, so Harper tries to approach it from all angles as he gently rocks her. “Everyone hates the phrase ‘time heals all wounds’ but it’s true. And just like you can’t run on a broken leg, you can’t try to force yourself to be okay before it’s time. You have to ride out the storm first.”
I shall not live in vain
HARPER
