Flash Fiction February 02: Time
The things we regret the most usually aren’t the things we did but the things we didn’t. No one regrets not working long enough but many do regret not just, once in a while, taking the time to stop, to think, to sit down and be. We’re always in pursuit of the next something, the next goal, the next achievement.
But you can’t fault yourself for what you feel you want or need, and you definitely can’t fault your friends. You don’t want to hold them back, silence their desires, stifle their dreams. Because it’s ok, you tell each other, we’re young, there’s plenty of time.
Then you separate. One friend goes this way while another goes that way. You fall into your own obsessions, and sometimes you fall too hard, not realising the months and years that have passed. And it’s hard to reconnect, even when you want to, even when you need to.
Sometimes, one friend is just gone. That’s it. No longer there. No place to return to. And you can’t go back. You’re not the same person, and the river has passed you by. You’re left just standing there, staring at the wake of what was and what could have been, but this ship only goes forward.
You think about what you planned, what you hoped, what you dreamed could be, and you remember those last conversation, and you tell yourself, “We always thought there would plenty of time.”
(Based on true stories)
Posted in From the Writing Desk, No Category, Stories by Eran with comments disabled.