The Abridged Version

s/he wants to get through this quickly, s/he wants the horror to be brief, s/he wants it to pass like a fart in the wind, s/he doesn’t want to be interrupted now (and later will never come), s/he wants the sound bite to be played only once, s/he wants no visual to accompany, s/he wants the folks at work to cease talking about it, s/he wants the newspapers & online recordings of these events to be washed from the record, s/he wants to stay calm & collected, s/he wants to be secure for the rest of her/his life, s/he wants the world to listen when s/he cries, s/he wants to want what s/he’s allowed to be wanting because s/he’s nothing but the abridged version of what s/he used to be.