[ WP ] Every morning she puts on her sweats , laces her shoes , downs some coffee , and goes running with a dead man .

She glanced back at the figure that was slowly following her. She stopped short and waited for him to catch up. “ You ’ re cramping up my speed, y ’ know, ” she said jogging in place. A ghost of his laughter reached her ears. She turned back and ran ahead on the track. His footfalls erratic and heavy were always within earshot. She did not stop again. Her mind raced to the past as her feet carried her forward. Thousand little images popped into her head. The suit he had worn at the wedding and the way his eyes had lit up when he ’ d seen her walking down the aisle. The frown he wore as he sat at the little breakfast nook, figuring out their taxes and seeing if they could finally take that trip to Disneyland. The way he always turned to the left and balled himself as he slept, always the little spoon – gender conformation be damned. The smile that played on his lips when she sometimes caught him watching her – watching her do the little things – vacuuming the apartment they shared, looking dreamily at the window as she did the dishes, deciding what to wear to work – that little smile was always there with her. She could glance back now and she could see him smiling that same smile. She could feel the warmth of that smile on the nape of her neck as she ran now. Yes. He was always there. For her. 
 
 Other images rose up as well. His pale, haggard face, white bristles of beard that he couldn ’ t shave off anymore. His face as he puked vile green things into a metal bucket, his hair shining bald. The tired smile he gave, the smile that wanted to be more but couldn ’ t. She would squeeze his hand. Tell him it ’ s alright. Tell him that she was there for him. Always. Just like how he ’ d be there for her. There were somethings that she knew transcended simple things like existence and reality. Their love had always been one of those things. To the outside world this was just their illusion of grandeur, the way for them to escape the daily grind by believing in something that was more than the sum of them – their own way of worship. To them, it was basic and simple truth. A truth that reverberated within both their beings and resonated in every word, every glance they shared. They did not care that others did not understand it – dove-eyed attention or narrow-eyed cynicism, they were not affected. They knew nothing mattered, nothing changed what they shared. It was beyond reason, doubt. It was unexplainable and inexplicable in so many ways but to the two of them who felt it, it was as obvious as the air they breathed. So of course it did n't stop when one of them stopped breathing that air. Of course, their love went on. 
 
 They had met on this jogging track all those years ago. They had literally ‘ run into each other ’. ( They would glance at each other when they said this – the story of how they ’ d met, repeated so often, made fun of so often, cherished so often. ) She had been ahead even then. He had stopped in the bench and waited for her to come back again and stopped her. Although there had been many people around, she had known instinctively that it was for her that he waited. And that was how they ’ d met. The romance had been slow. They had each been wary, hurt too often before. But there had always been this pull that brought them together. Slowly like a tiny wave the crashes into the shore and fills the empty sea shell with all its fresh salty water, they had infiltrated each other ’ s lives. Slowly there had come upon their lives a day when they couldn ’ t think of their lives as separate anymore. Slowly like a rain drop caught in the roof and gently making its way down, they had come to realise that they were together – that they were meant to be. The wedding had been simple – too simple to a few, but to them it had been magical. There could have been no other chapel, no other cake, no other wedding band. But most importantly there could have no other person to share all eternity with. 
 
 She stopped at the bench he had waited on, all those years ago. Eternity. She laced her shoes again tightly. She looked to her left and saw again the smile that had first began haunting her all those years ago. She smiled as she started running again. 

