every color can be found

[Penny has been MIA since October thirteenth. Close friends and workers at the Centers knew about the first disappearance, when she stayed in the hospital until the twenty-third.

Fewer people know about her second disappearance. Suffice it to say, she never returned to work after the first visit.]

Last month was awful. I'm sure plenty of people're still recovering from it... and maybe there're a few who won't ever get over it completely. If you're one of those people, don't hate yourself for not being able to put everything behind you. What's important is that you're still here.

What I mean is... you know, life's hard. There're plenty of good and beautiful things in the world--in all worlds, I mean--but there's also pain and suffering. People get hurt for no reason, people die senselessly or way too young, children starve to death, zombies attack. It sucks. It really does. Almost everyone here has seen awful things... had awful things done to them. But we're all still doing what we can to live.

I'm not going to say that everything happens for a reason or that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger or anything like that. Everything just happens, and some of those things are terrible. Sometimes we can bounce back from terrible things. Sometimes they hurt us so much that we'll never be the same again. Either way, we keep on living. We keep appreciating beautiful things like love and sunrises. No matter how much we hurt or suffer, we hang on because we're strong enough to get through the bad to get to the good. The strength to do that comes from us, not from what happens to us.

It takes courage to live. I think that's what I'm trying to say. A lot of courage.


[COMMENTS]

Crazy week, huh?  People dying, people coming back to life for a day, the network turning into a weird version of The Sun.  I'm not a fan of gossip.  What people do, who they do it with--that's all their business, no one else's.  

I'm even less a fan of murder, but I'm sure the police will take care of that.

Coming back to life, though... that's really something.  I ended up running around the garden most of the day.  Maybe this doesn't make sense, but being alive seems to make everything brighter.  Things taste better, flowers smell better, running is more fun.  I never would've guessed that I'd actually miss getting my heart rate up and needing to breathe.  It was a nice day, but being like this--being dead, I mean--isn't bad.  It's way better than not being in the City would be, and I still get to do the things I care about and meet people.

[Her voice takes on a gloomier tone that is very unlike Penny.]

Jenny went home.  I checked the Hall and there she was.  I'll definitely miss her.  I didn't know her for very long, but she's always so sweet and cheerful, and she's pretty much the only person I've ever had a serious conversation about freeing the animals in the zoo with. 

She said I could be part of her family, too--that I'd make a good sister.  I've never had anyone invite me into her family before.  Having a family...

[There's a brief pause, a sniff, and then, with forced brightness:]

So!  Charlie, Sophie--shopping tomorrow, right?


[COMMENTS]