At first, Sarah waited for him. John had said that he would return, and she trusted him. But as the months turned into years, and phone calls and letters became rarer and then stopped, she began to think he had forgotten about her or died. And maybe it was time for her to forget him too and move on. She was almost thirty. More than a third of her life had been spent waiting for him, putting off other guys that she was interested in. No longer, Sarah decided. She was going to find someone else and settle down with her photography and have a normal life.
It worked, for a while. She met a guy, fell in love with him as hard as she had fallen for John back in high school. They got married, and, eventually, had a beautiful baby girl. Two years later, John finished what he had set out to do and returned as he had always promised.
Sarah wasn't in Paradise, Ohio anymore, but that didn't seem to make a difference. One day, she answered a knock on her door to reveal a man who hadn't changed very much at all. She knew him instantly. "John," she said, not opening the screen door. "What are you doing here?"
"I told you I'd come find you," he said. "Loriens fall in love for life."
Sarah looked down as her daughter toddled over to see who Mommy was talking to, and scooped the little girl up. "Humans don't, John. I was seventeen when we fell in love. And then you disappeared for fifteen years. I haven't heard from you in six, and then you just show up and expect us to pick up where we left off?"
John appeared to think about that for a moment. "Yes," he finally said.
Sarah shook her head. "I'm sorry, John. I can't. I've got a family now. I'm happy. I'd like to be friends with you again, but I just don't love you anymore. I'm sorry," she repeated.
John looked like she had just kicked his mutant dog-thingy. "No, I get it," he said quickly. "I'm sorry. I won't bother you again." He was gone before she could say anything more. She wondered if that was a new power he had developed since leaving her. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure of her choice.
Her uncertainty lasted all of twenty seconds, until the little girl on her hip spoke up. "Mommy?"
No, Sarah decided. She was right where she needed to be. She closed the front door. John was the past. This was the present and future and that was all she wanted to worry about.