Potential Ending for “Five Daughters” (Dialogue Practice)
       Paul pulled his gaze from the purpling skies to look instead at the face of his new wife.  Penny's cheeks were flushed from the long day of sun, and strands of orange hair stuck to her neck.  He thought she looked more beautiful now than she ever had before, sitting in her favorite rocking chair on the porch.  Watching her watch the sun set, Paul reached out and took her hand. She turned toward him, smiling.
       "Can I tell you something?"
       "Sure, of course," Penny replied easily.
       "Well, it might seem negative at first, but it isn't, really..." he waited to continue.
       "Okay," she looked puzzled, "well if it isn't, really, then I'm sure it's fine." She smiled at him with one side of her mouth.  He squeezed her hand.
       "When I first met you, I was in a bad place," he began, "like, a really bad place."  Penny tilted her head to the side, listening.  "My wife had been dead for a few years, but it was still so hard for us, for the girls..." Paul felt his voice catch in his throat.  He looked down at his hand holding her hand. Penny's fingers looked so delicate and slender next to his, but he could feel her strength.  Swallowing, he continued on, "there were times when I felt like I had no hope for my future.  I always knew the girls would be okay, or at least sort of, but I didn't know if I would ever be okay."  He paused again, then looked up to meet her eyes.  Her smile had gone and her brow was furrowed with concern, but she sat patiently while he struggled to speak.  As Paul stared at her, in awe at her loveliness, he nearly forgot what he had wanted to say.
       "Hey, I love you, you know," Penny reached out to gently pinch his chin as she spoke. "You do know that, right?" He gave a shaky laugh, then nodded.
       "I still have a hard time believing it," Paul muttered.  "I love you, too," he added.  "I just, I want you to know that, before I met you, I had just lived through the worst part of my life.  I had attained everything that I had ever wanted, and then life took it away from me - " he took both of her hands in his, then, " - or so I thought."  She smiled at him again, this time so warmly and fully that he felt the tears begin to well in his eyes.  He had to clear his throat to keep speaking, but now he was starting to find the words he had been searching for.  "When I met you, I realized what happiness could be," he said to her, so quietly it was almost a whisper.  "When I met you, it was like the sun breaking a storm, a storm that had lasted so long I had almost forgotten what the sunlight looked like, you know?"  Penny nodded, still smiling, and Paul could see tears in her eyes, too.  "I just wanted to say I love you, and thank you," he took up her hands and kissed each one, "thank you for showing me what happiness could be."
