The day we saw forever

A place to call home

Epilogue.
The scent of saltwater hangs in the air. In the distance I can hear seagulls and the crashing of waves against the shore. I take a quick peek at the map in my left hand. Almost there. The beach should be just a few minutes away.

I am in awe of what I see when I reach the beach. Endless sands to my left and right. A clear blue sea ahead. Beautiful greenery. It's quiet here. For a brief moment I just stand there. Taking it in. The fresh air filling me up. I'm allowing the flood of thoughts to come through me.

These last months have been a rollercoaster of emotions. Everything that happened after that particular day has felt like I was a spectator to a life that wasn't my own. The image of Calli pops up. Soft curls, soft eyes, covered in blood. I shake it off.

To say that day has changed my life would be an understatement. I never deemed it possible. To be a changed man in twenty-four hours. Yet here I stand. My feet tickled by the sand, miles away from home. Different city every week. Far away from the life I led before Calli.

I can still lose myself in that memory. The sound her body made when it hit the asphalt and the cracking of her bones when the medics moved her. Her legs dangling for the slightest second, flopped sideways in a way that shouldn't be possible. The bright red turned brown on the street. It took weeks for that to disappear and yes, I checked.

'Don't forget me.' I could never forget. It doesn't really matter how much time passes by even though the therapist I saw for about a month told me otherwise.

I don't think my parents or the therapist liked the idea of leaving home to travel but if there is anything that Calli taught me it's that life can't be lived in fear. It can end at any time. You could be hit by an asshole in a speeding car on a lovely morning and things could end before you even lived. Planning, dreaming, it's not enough. You have to commit.

So I said goodbye to my parents, who made peace for the sake of me. We all knew that this truce would end the second I left though.
I said goodbye to Will and promised to send him a quirky card from every city I visited. He was very supportive, maybe most of all. It made me feel sad. I wished I had confided in him a long time ago.

Talking about the things that bothered me, my worries, my dreams, love, life, death and everything in between, it brought forth some unexpected connections to the people in my life. It's a shame that it often takes a traumatic event to wake us up. It's also beautiful that my outlook on life has changed because of her. That a person can touch you and change everything.

There is a dog barking to my right. A young woman and her son walk past. They smile and the kid gives me a little wave. Everything feels at peace here. I'm thinking about staying. It's the first city that I explored and felt worthy of being called home.

'What do you think?' I ask turning my eyes away from the ocean. 'Does it feel like home?'

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I'll leave it up to you. Tell me what you decide on. Is Calli with him? Is it someone else? Has he gone batsh*t crazy, talking to himself? Is this a happy ending or not? Something in between perhaps.

This story was so much fun to write. I felt inspired by a woman in my surrounding. I often feel inspired by people around me. As if stories come to live in my mind because of them.
On top of that I saw that challenge somewhere: a light story with a dark twist. So this came out of that and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I won't tell you my thought about the end, I want you to be able to fantasize about that for yourself.

What I can tell you is that this story, while it is about Max, Calli and their building romance, it is mostly about people being able to connect on very random days, under very random circumstances. It's about growth and change, being able to break habits, cycles, patterns and breaking away from people who no longer feel right because you can absolutely do that. Connection and love. This is a story about talking. Because we often keep too much to ourselves and sharing in happiness but also in pain is what makes us stronger.

Please vote, comment, share. I hope you liked this short story. Thanks for reading. Much love, Marinka Xx.