Finally.
It is a word that stands at the end of many stories. Often those stories are books that begin with a simple premise. A single word.
When?
Are you an optimistic, the author asks? Watch as he introduces you to two people who may be a couple.
Are you a pessimist, he whispers, as he shows you a couple who slide toward
dissolution.
Still, ponder this.
In all cases, the two edges of the story are the same.
When
(When will they get together or
when will it fall apart?)
Finally
(Finally they have found each each other, despite all obstacles in their way or
conversly, a series of missteps doomed what seemed to be perfection).
Even the worst pessimist would not believe that life is so simple.
Of course, even the cheeriest optimist has bruises.
Fiction pulls the string on both ends. The audience, filled with their own set of expectations, watches as the
actors dance in and out of each other's orbit.
Will they? Won't they?
When? Finally. Thankfully.
.
And taken by light in her arms
at long and dear last
I may without fail, Suffer the first vision
that set fire to the stars.
Love in the Asylum -Dylan Thomas