Remembering Destiny's Call

I hear footsteps coming behind me, and I shudder. I stand frozen still in the alley that once held all of my dreams in place. A five here, twenty there. I made my life here. I sacrificed everything. Here. Here is where I learned how to play my first guitar around a crackling campfire. Now I stand here, waiting for destiny to find me twenty years later. Twenty years later, I stand here to find something I never knew I was searching for. Footsteps fall behind me, splashing in shallow puddles that reflect a sallow moon.

"You're late, love."

I laugh, "That's all you have to say? You've waited twenty years for me. A few short minutes mean nothing."

He clutches my wrist and spins me around, “You’re right. I've waited long enough.” He leans in to kiss me, but I hesitate, “Cass, I have a husband and kids. I can’t do this. Singing and playing music in an alley when you are fifteen is one thing, this is another.”

He leans away from my face to look into my eyes, “I don’t know what to say, Tracy. If you called me here just to reject me, why am I here in the first place?” I look to the damp cement below me and let a tear fall into my reflection. My eyes slowly find his, and I say, “Because I need to let you go.” I pull his face quickly to my lips and kiss him hard, taking in his scent to remember until I die. My hands find his hair. Dirty blonde. Soft. Shiny. This used to be mine. My hands fall to my sides, and I turn to run to my silver Mazda. Don’t turn back. Don’t turn back. Don’t turn back. I whip my head around to see him one more time. He’s gone. “Cass! I love you! I always loved you!”