The Printed Page

"What are you doing?!?" she shrieked as she surveyed the damage.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm tearing up all the books I own!" he yelled back, tearing yet another section of Shakespeare and tossing the shreds onto the floor.

"But why? Why on earth are you doing this?" She thought she knew, and tears began welling up in her eyes.

"To erase any memory I have of you, that's why. You don't want to have anything to do with me anymore? Well I don't want to have anything to do with you! I'm starting over, but not before everything that reminds me of you is destroyed. I can't afford to buy a new house or new clothes or new car; those will have to stay. But I don't need these books. Too many memories. Just looking at them makes me ... What do you care, anyway?"

"It didn't have to be like this, John." She turned and walked away, leaving him with pages in his hand and a question in his heart.