Our Reflections Ran

It's a mix of a very short story and a poem.

We sat at the edge of a creek,

in the forrest that we grew up near.

We grew up together, but endlessly apart.

As the creek ran, life passed us by.

Not by much, but it did, and we never knew how much time we had.

In fact, we never knew how far apart we were.

We sat in silence just a couple of inches apart,

but I had never felt further from someone in my life.

The running of the creek narrated our day,

as time passed we sat there as two bodies of water

staring into another body, and at our shimmering reflections.

Why are we even here?

I came to the forrest in solitude, for solitude rather,

but I'm here with company.

Company which I have not even said a word to.

She's here, next to me, hugging her knees by her chin.

I do not know why she's here.

And she doesn't know why I am.

But I don't think we care.

We both had to escape from our ever-distancing lives.

I don't know why she had to, and I may never know,

but maybe we could escape together.

She's fiddling with her fingers and she has a look on her face.

That look when you're about to say something,

something that absolutely kills you on the inside,

but you just can't bring yourself say.

We can escape right now, together, with no past.

The creek only runs one way and will forever.

Why can't we?

Our reflections are trying to leave, maybe we should let them.

"Hey" I whispered in the most broken voice imaginable.

She turned slowly and looked at me with her mouth slightly open.

She looked as if she had never heard me speak, or didn't know I could.

We looked into each other's eyes and just listened.

The creek ran and the leaves swayed with the wind.

It blew her dark brown hair into her face and she turned away when she moved it.

I don't know how long we sat there in complete silence, but it was a while.

And during that time, we grew together. 

In the same direction.

I daydreamed about us escaping all day,

like the creek, just running in one direction without ever turning back.

When I finally realized I was not paying attention, I looked down at the creek.

I wanted to look at our distorted reflections in the water.

But she was gone, it was just my reflection.

It was as lonely as I was when I got there.

But I had felt closer to her than ever.

Somehow, in some weird way, we helped each other escape.

Our reflections may be separate,

but we are running in one direction.

Together.

And we will never turn back.

Author's Note

Please let me know what you think or any improvements! thanks.

Reviews

[Josh Dollar]

This is absolutely majestic and wonderful. It's tragic and happy at the same time. It reminded me that we can't go back and undo something, at least to me, ecpecilly the line "but we are running in one direction".

[Elina]

I really liked this, quite a lot. It was beautiful, in an almost tragic sort of way. Perhaps that wasn't what you were going for, but that's how it came across to me.

[Eli Hughes]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. But yes that was along the lines of what I was going for, it's hard to really articulate what my goal was exactly but that's pretty close.