Farewell Dreams

Four years of dreaming can so quickly turn into four years of emptiness.

It was raining. A dark shadow was cast upon the little street in the small somber town. There was no traffic, no one on the streets. Just a small car packed full of things, sitting in a drive way ready to leave. The family, within the warm enclose of the home, had already said their goodbyes, and the girl made her way out to the car. Her footsteps only added to the sound of the rain hitting the damp walk way, washing away all the chalk drawing and hand prints made of paint. She reached the car, but took a moment to look back at the family standing in the window. For the last time she gave a reserved wave of farewell and they slowly disappeared from the window. Taking a final breath, she turned back towards the car and reached for the handle when a voice stopped her. Swiftly she turned around, rain just starting to leave an impression on her hair, and gazed upon the boy standing in front of her. He wasn’t wearing a coat, only a dark t shirt and his eyes stared right into hers.

“I…I just wanted to come and say goodbye,” the boy mumbled quietly.

Both of them stood there in silence for a moment, neither knowing what to do, each of them wanting to do something.

“Say it then,” the girl said softly.

The boy looked at the ground for a moment and shuffled his feet before he replied.

“Why?” he asked, still looking at the wet pavement.

The girl let out a sharp sigh and let her hand slide off the door handle.

“Sometimes the timing is never right,” she answered,” sometimes things just never happen no matter how much one of us wanted them to.”

“I should have found you sooner,” he said glancing up at her, rain now dripping from his hair.

At that comment the girl straightened her posture and looked around her as if the answers she was searching for was written in the clouds.

Putting her thumbs in her pockets and looking back at the boy the girl said, “I guess it’s time for me to go.”

The two looked into each other’s eyes once more, contemplating doing anything more, yet knowing that no matter how much they did, the result would still leave them with nothing at all.

Within the silence dreams were meeting with reality, a reality that brought an end to the lives of the dreams. Each morning that was met with possibility and hope simply faded away along with all the other moments of impossible possibilities.

Anger and resentment filled the girl as she watched all the time spent wishing be washed away with the rain. She wondered why things didn’t turn out differently, why everyone else seemed to have gotten what she wished for as she stood alongside her car. Four years spend waiting to swept away only to have been left alone instead.

Maybe there was someone who thought about it, who wished they did something. Some, who watched her walk, yet said nothing at all, remained silent out of fear or naivete, leaving her in undeserved solitude with only her dimming dreams.  

Before she opened the car door the girl turned around one more time, rain falling down her face and said, “I wish you had found me at all.”

With that the boy gave a sad smile, still looking into her eyes, and slowly evaporated in the rain. For a few seconds she stood and stared at the spot where the boy could have been. Then she gave a broken smirk, turned around, got in her car, and left. As she drove away the rain washed her away.