Desperate to demonstrate empathy, I mumbled that happiness for all of us at the roadside was elusive. Resenting me for not addressing her pain, Michelle remarked that I was as big a liar as she. “Everybody knows unless I had a winning hand, I wouldn’t recognize happiness if it hit me over the head. Amber with her evangelical faith is happier than I. Even those animals in the back yard seem more content than the owner of the Happiness Inn.” Wiping off tears and blowing her nose, Michelle complained that I treated her like the caged animals in the backyard. “The way I see it Freddie, we can find happiness together. Aren’t I prettier than most women you come across?”
At war inside her head, she was sad and angry that I did not respond to her call for love and happiness. Seeing her rattled, A
