happiness (because I have very little of it this morning)

Macomber wanted to be happy. He wanted to be without fear, to face the lion, to shoot him without even thinking about it, to feel the "wild unreasonable happiness" that comes with the defeat of terror. Margot wanted to be happy, too. She wanted to be free from Macomber. She was tired of pretending, of being the "comparatively happily married couple, one of those whose disruption is often rumored but never occurs."And so when Macomber finally finds his happiness, Margot uses the opportunity to find hers. Each with the crack of a rifle, each with a shot to the back of their prey—the death of another created the opportunity for happiness. Happiness has its price.

Nick wanted to be happy. He wanted things to be fun, just liked they used to be. But Marjorie wasn't fun anymore. She knew everything, except the hellish turmoil inside him. He didn't know and this was the one thing that she couldn't explain it. She made love boring. And so he sent her away. Happiness has its price.

Jig wanted to be happy. She wanted him to be happy and he wanted her to be happy, too. And the solution was so simple: let the air in, let the wind take it all away, let this small problem just fly away, and they could have everything again. But Jig knew, she understood that happiness is not so simple. If you want to get something, you have to give something. And sometimes the thing you give can never come back. Happiness has its price.

* Based on Ernest Hemingway's short stories "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," "The End of Something," and "Hills Like White Elephants"