Knicknacks & Doodads

Foundation

He was an old man, one expected to hobble and not be completely right in the mind. Wrinkles dominated his face and hands, a farmer's tan gracing his skin. Bushels of cotton hair swept across his forehead and down the back of his neck. An elderly fellow who liked his gardening, would have been most people's first impression. Yet his sunken blue eyes stared piercingly out at the ruins with as much life as someone a quarter his age, for he was not who everyone would have thought he was. He was done here. It was time to move on.

His son had always told him to live in the present, never dwell on the past- a boy far wiser than one of his years. It was often the younger generation who had to take care of the older in the family, much to the old man's dismay. He had always wanted to be a good father, but the death of his wife had never allowed that to be a reality.

His son had practically lived here, and he didn't want to leave the library, but he knew the past was in the past, and he couldn't change it. Lurking at the gravestone didn't bring the family back to life, and he had lingered above the body far too long.

He had taken care of this place, and he knew if he abandoned it all his hard work would be overgrown with weeds and nature. But that was okay, he had decided- it would be that way no matter what, once he died. It was time to let the dead rest in peace, time to let the flowers wilt over the grave. It pained him, an ache in his heart, but he knew it was time to let go. He would never forget, but he would leave the past behind, and that would be for the best.

The backpack that had once been his son's was empty, and he slung it over his shoulders. He would fill it as he travelled, creating souvenirs everywhere he went. He regretted not being able to take his son on more vacations, his job as a doctor preventing him from taking much time off- not that he had wanted to, it was a distraction from his wife and the memories that haunted him. But he would travel now, all over- enough for himself and his wife and his son.

He walked away from the foundation of the library with the gardens he had carefully tended to. He walked away from the bombing of the innocent people.

He walked away from his son.