City

He stood there near the intersection of two major streets amidst a tidal flow of people with the stone in one hand and a bag in the other.

People streamed around him like he wasn't even there. He felt like some ghost, Earthbound in a garish place where the wind whistled through empty trees. Sound like dead laughter echoed along the dingy buildings. Everything was gray here. Everything was foreign.

He was empty though and standing in the middle of the crowd only highlighted the loneliness he felt. All these strangers who moved so close were gone again soon after, never to return. He was alone, here in the center of a mass of people.

It was strange to be free after so many years of being something else. Tied down in many ways but free in others. Now he had finally detached himself from being a husband, father, and friend. There was nothing else there now, except for a bag and a stone.

Some people talk about coming around full circle, but the ones this has actually happened to rarely speak of it. Such a thing is too personal and somewhat embarrassing to admit. You find yourself at a place you never though you'd see again and seeing it once more doesn't make it any better. All the lies you told yourself about those early times are thrust upon you with no hope of escape.

Sandy always did like to try and force him to do more than what he wanted. He remembered how she would dare him to make some romantic gesture to her and then pretend he had gone too far. Once he had yelled at the top of his lungs that he loved her in a crowded high school gym and she refused to speak to him for a week afterward.

He wondered at that here and thought that the same thing was likely to happen. History always repeats itself.

He had to be sure though. No more running away from what could be. If it was in this crowded and dank place that love might return to him, he would take it gladly.

If the answer wasn't here, he would accept that just as easy and continue looking.

Freedom was like that. You had a moment in time to be at that right place and if you missed it, the event passed and left you behind to sink among the faded possibilities.

To be there though and take a shot... That was enough. It had to be enough to wrap a remainder of a life in.