Conversation with Charlie

Taking mental pictures to remember her face, she stares deeper into a reflection unlike she's ever seen. Her nose has grown, her cheeks are paler, her eyes uneven, her hair cut shorter, and she is a stranger to herself. Rebecca breaks contact with the mirror and walks out of Charlie’s bathroom. She lifts toys off the couch and places them on the floor. Then after a deep breath she begins to speak:

“Let me be honest: I fear what you think of me but still yet I fear more what I know of me. For deep beneath my skin lies my flaws and my inadequacies. So now I will sit here and ponder. “

 

Charlie smiles in a kind and understanding way. “Don't fear that you exist imperfectly. Issues and problems will claw at you till they find places under your skin. Ripping them out quickly will scar your beauty.”

Rebecca begins to think and then stares out the window. “I feel naked, sharing my ideas, thoughts, and emotions. It's cold without the clothes to keep me warm. So very numbing to be so revealing. Beneath the setting sun, I cover myself from the light that shines brightly across my reddening skin. Pain will shoot through my body quickly, down my spine toward the tips of my toes. My answers to your question have me in agony, I don't want you to see me so bare.” She looks towards Charlie standing in the middle of the room. Then she exclaims in a weakening voice: “What do you make of me, when I answer so boldly? To the point and real to the core?”

 

“It's too early for me to tell, but your heart is set in place.”

“Set where, in what place?”

“Where it needs to be to discover. A place of risking pain and working through suffering.”

“Maybe I think too much and forget to let the silence in.”

 

Charlie thought it over then said “What do you mean?”

“I mean”...-she looked out towards the sunset “I mean to say that perhaps if I just stay here my life will set itself in place as well.”

 

“The sun may set so beautifully, but life is messy. You can't expect colors to stretch the skies in yourself.”

She turned away from the sun and towards Charlie “I don't know what to do.” She said as she looked into his eyes.

 

“Find the place where you feel yourself alive and stay there. Then when you start to slip away - do it again.”

Author's Note

Enjoy!