She finally dragged her heels to stop, breath heaving. The rain had softened to a mist. And in that stillness, something settled. Not a surrender. Not a winner declared.
A person, finally whole.
That night, when she looked in the bathroom mirror, she saw only one face. Fine lines and freckles. A chin that still quivered sometimes. Eyes that had seen weddings and funerals, promotions and pink slips, the slow death of a marriage and the first fragile breath of something new. girl v woman
Clara closed her eyes. And then she pumped. She finally dragged her heels to stop, breath heaving