1.
Dichotomies. That's where we really live
Stretched out between opposite ends of the same rope.
There was a part of her that wasn't a daughter, wasn't a friend, wasn't a citizen — just a mere being.
A part that didn't want to be singled out and waved at by old school friends. And especially not him.
She knew she was no longer her.
The girl had spent her whole life trying to fit into either side of the rope, but recently she discovered that she didn't have to.
Balance — ah that elusive state if she only she could. If only she didn't have to break, pulled always by opposite ends.
2.
The girl didn't know how life had become so weary. So heavy
As she looked out the tram window, she caught sight of the maple leaves — and wondered how they changed colours so effortlessly.
She felt strangely reassured by this phenomenon, that they like her, could have a spectrum of identities — but she could not understand how their subtlety.
How lightly they changed.
But the leaves flew away, to a sanctuary of their own.
Far from the shadows of her thoughts.
YOU ARE READING
Autumn Leaves (a short story)
Short StoryA Girl, tormented by her past loves, gets on a tram, and finds solace and support from a woman who has gone through similar ordeals in her youth. As they each reflect on their pasts and decisions, a question which has tormented women for generations...
