There were tears in her eyes. She held him tightly for the last time. Pain closed in on them. In the background someone was playing on a guitar with painful languor. For once she brushed her tears back with the back of her hand. He let his tears trickle to the floor for the first time in ages... Finally, as it always does, reality came thudding through their stairs of thought. And they laughed. They laughed with a carefully cultivated falseness. And the tears were gone. And they were sane again. Because sanity and insanity are measured by laughter: tears just don't count. They parted with smiles they had constructed years ago. Follow @diaporesis