Flash Fiction: Joyful Loss

Double Exposure © Joe Smith

Written by Emma Mathes

Photo by Joe Smith

Shea had spent her life so far being whoever people thought she was. When she allowed others’ understanding of her to filter her self-perception, Shea could avoid knowing herself. Shea considered this an effect of her small town: everyone knows you, or everyone thinks they do.

And then she moved to the city—New York City. And each passing day, every subway ride and every one-sided smile thrown at a passing stranger dissolved her conceptions like fabric soaked in bleach. What remained was her essence, and for the first time in her adult life, Shea liked herself. She faded into the blur of passing time and honking cars, and felt comfortable.