Sometimes you find a Gem

At my NYC internship, I read manuscripts of people desiring to become published authors. The large majority of them are shit. However, I was given a full manuscript today and a part of it actually brought tears to my eyes.

I love this. The main character, Lou, is talking to her mother who has Alzheimers and doesn't remember her.

“Have you ever loved, Lou the pretender?”

I flinched at the turn in conversation.  “No.”

“Good, then you might survive this life.”  Her fingers brushed across the spine of a green hardcover.  “Love burns at first, right in the middle of you.  Eats you up on the inside, and you want it to.  The only salve that cools is him.  There’s exquisite pleasure in that pain.”
Wetness filled her lashes, but didn’t break over.  “And then the fire goes out, and you’re left burning, burning so hot it’s agony, wild and unstoppable, until it reduces you to nothing but husk and ash.  And when you rise like the phoenix …” Mum turned to face me, nearly looking herself again in all of her haughty superiority.  “Do you know what the worst part of love is?”

Stunned, I shook my head.

“The worst part is that despite the pain, the loneliness, the agony so bad you don’t know how you survived it, you know that if he appeared before you again, even for a moment, you’d do it all over again for just one more taste of that exquisite pleasure.  You’d suffer again, burn again, wander lost in your ashes again, just for one … more … second, one more touch, one more … kiss.  You’re better off never knowing love.  It will kill you in the end.  It always does.”

Stunning.