Veronika Decides to Die

Veronika: [first lines]

Veronika: Well, let's see. After you decide that I'm depressed, or whatever, you'll put me on meds, right? Well I know hundreds of people on them and they're all doing just fine. Really. I'll go back to work on my new anti-depressants, have dinner with my parents and persuade them I'm back to being the normal one who never gives them any trouble. And one day some guy will ask me to marry him. He'll be nice enough. That'll make my parents very happy. The first year we'll make love all the time, and in the second and third less and less. But just as we're getting sick of each other, I'll get pregnant. Taking care of kids, holding onto jobs, paying mortgages, It'll keep us on an even keel for a while. Then about ten years into it he'll have an affair because I'm too busy and I'm too tired. And I'll find out. I'll threaten to kill him, his mistress... myself. We'll get past it. A few years later he'll have another one. This time I'm just going to pretend that I don't know because somehow kicking up a fuss just doesn't seem worth the trouble this time. And I'll live out the rest of my days sometimes wishing my kids could have the life that I never had. Other times secretly pleased they're turning into repeats of me. I'm fine. Really.