As the great author Kurt Vonnegut showed us in his masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five, the best way to cope is to distance yourself. And what better way to distance yourself then projecting yourself upon a fiction, grounded in reality, but ultimately one that you can control? This is what Vonnegut did, and why I strive to do in this short work.
I make no claims that I am as prolific a writer as Vonnegut was, I am merely using him as an example for what I am trying to convey.
I could be writing this using a purely fictional character, however the story I will share is too short to demand the building of a completely new character. Or perhaps that is my own laziness.
You may call me pretentious but this is a work of earnestness, of need. I need to write this, and I thank you for your readership.
It is during our greatest losses and defeats that our true self – our soul – becomes revealed. When Angelica Hamilton heard that her brother had died, all she could do was weep. It seemed that in that moment, when she wept, her true self – one that did not want to ever be in the open – was contaminated, and shattered.
You may say that crying is not one moment, however, the act of weeping, of pure undistilled sadness and emotion, can only be experienced all at once, in one single second.
Usually, upon revealing your true self, you want to hide, protect your soul from vulnerability. Usually, you can recover. However, in this moment of revelation, for Angelica, all she could do was weep, for she was now fundamentally broken – eternally.
For time immemorial she would be remembered as a broken child, for that moment of vulnerability shattered her.
Forever and ever, Angelica Hamilton was only remembered for her eternal broken-ness – for her true self never truly repaired. And all she would do was weep.