Meredith squirmed in her seat with the discomfort of having to use the bathroom.

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She was stuck in traffic again and had no idea how long the rest of the trip would take.

Meredith decided she needed something to distract her. She glanced at her cell phone and switched on Spotify. As the music began to play, she began to sing along out loud.

As the song ended, she began to think about why they were moving in the first place.

She had recently accepted a job offer as a secretary at a law firm in the city. But the couple lived about 40 miles away from her new office. It didn’t take long for the couple to realize that the most practical thing to do would be to move.

The blue truck came to a stop outside of building number 16.

Meredith put the truck in park and took the keys out of the ignition. Opening the driver’s side door, she jumped out and stretched her arms toward the slightly cloudy blue sky.

“We’ll here we are!” she remarked.

“Yep,” Logan grunted, “Home, sweet home,” he added cynically.

“Aww… at least give it a chance,” Meredith petitioned. “We haven’t even stayed here one night,” she said to him with a doe-eyed expression. And with that she jogged away up the flight of stairs. “Gotta go to the bathroom,” she called back over her shoulder.

*************

“Move it up and to the left,” Logan instructed as the couple wrestled their couch up the flight of stairs.

“Who’s left? Yours or mine?” Meredith asked under the strain.

“Mine.”

Once the couch was inside the apartment, the two of them dropped it down catty corner across the living room and plopped down on it in exhaustion. They didn’t have much more left to unload.

“Want some water?” Logan offered.

“No, I’m good thanks.”

Logan got up and walked over to the kitchen sink. He grabbed a red plastic cup from the sleeve that sat on the counter and turned on the tap. Once the cup was filled he turned the sink off, tossed his head back, and guzzled down the water.

After the brief respite, the two went back down to the truck to get the last few of their possessions.

“You know,” Meredith began, “I wasn’t sure about all this. New job. Moving. It is kinda like we are restarting our life in some way.”

“Yeah,” Logan sighed. “We didn’t really have much of a choice, huh?”

“Not really,” Meredith agreed. “Are you okay with this?”

“I will be. Yes. I…” Logan hesitated. He wanted to pick his next words carefully. “I am just frustrated, that’s all. It seems that we shouldn’t have to put up with this. That we shouldn’t be here at this point in our life. That we should be doing so much more.”

Logan paused.

“I appreciate you, Meredith, I really do. I know this sucks more for you than for me, but it doesn’t change how I feel and what I have to deal with.”

“I understand,” she nodded.

“The thing about this. This whole thing. Moving. Your new job. It’s all just temporary. None of it matters. None of this matters. We don’t have to get so worked up about it. In the course of history our life is like the blink of an eye. Why do we have such struggles for that blip of time? Why can’t it just be easy, you know? It is a constant battle against destruction. Our bodies are dying, but we have to feed and maintain them and to sleep to keep them healthy, yet they still will die. Our new apartment, yes this place, it’s already falling apart, see that door isn’t even on straight. The whole thing is just trending towards entropy.”

Logan realized he was monologuing.

The stress of life had gotten to him.

He was just tired.

Tired of scraping by. Tired of always working on the next side hustle. Tired of the struggle.

Meredith approached him and wrapped her arms around him in a loving embrace.

“It will be okay,” Logan reassured her, mostly trying to believe it himself.

“We’ve been through worse,” Meredith reflected. “We can do this.”

Logan fought back tears.

“This job, you’re right, it is only temporary. And it will only be until we can get enough together to fund our startup idea. You know we are going to make this work. I believe in you. That’s why I married you.” Meredith said to bolster Logan’s confidence.

He took a deep breath and exhaled.

“You’re right. You’re right, we have to look at this as just a stepping stone. As a way towards a better future.”

“Uh huh.”

“And we know that this isn’t it. That there is so much more. That we have hope for a reason. We know that we were made for so much more.”

This is the end of this story but for more...

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Rebirth: An Original Short Story - Part 3 of 3 (featuring exclusive art by @mars-eve)