a happy ending after all

One might have thought that with such an ending ("Everything's going to be all right now") the story had a happy conclusion. The irony, of course, is that nothing could be further from the truth. The real story ended in decline, the heartbreak much more poignant than the most beautiful and touching scenes from the text.

For a week or two everything seemed all right. But he was full of his own private doubts and fears, plagued as he often was by doubt when things were going well; she was waiting for it to hurt again and for things to go wrong. None of it felt right. And eventually when she gave voice to these confusing feelings, all of his private doubts and fears were realised. Thus they signed the death warrant for their happy ending.

All of his fleeting happiness escaped when she eventually left him. He took to alcohol, the age-old panacaea for the freshly broken heart; she returned to the world that she knew of abuse and pain, feeling alone and unloved, but at least she was familiar with that.

He pursued several fleeting relationships, each of them short-lived and miserable, serving only as reminders of what he was certain was his one true shot at happiness. Eventually he died alone of alcohol poisoning; his then-girlfriend discovered his body a few days later, called the police, and went home and committed suicide by mixing vodka and prescription sleeping pills, sure that she was responsible for his death.

After a string of abusive boyfriends, she finally found one that she was utterly terrified to leave. They married after a few short months of dating, and she has developed a talent for lying about the bruises. She has little joy to her existence, but is convinced that she ought to be happy, because she believes that most people are entirely unhappy, and at least, she reasons, she has something to be happy about. She is not sure what she has to be happy about, except perhaps that on the surface, if one ignores all of the facts, she is married and on the right track to raise a family, and she always dreamed of getting married and raising a family when she was young. She just didn't want it to happen in hell.