Anger and disgust rippled through me with a nearly violent force as I skimmed through the app, intent on purging all things private. Once, this virtual space had been our haven as a couple. Now, it was the primary record of betrayal and heartbreak. Now, with my eyes opened to the deception, it portrayed the tedious, drawn out process of a loved one becoming a stranger.
A single photo drew my eye more than the rest.
I clicked it.
I froze.
On my screen was a time capsule, and for just one moment I was transported into a past reality.
In that moment, I was a girl long gone. Young, trusting, the world at my fingertips, the future idealistically bright, my heart on my sleeves.
And for just one moment, there he was. That large-hearted, bright-eyed, honest, open boy I fell in love with. Ready to face the world by my side, his gaze as full of love and hope as my heart.
Entranced by this photo, I drifted in the memories of a simpler time, lost in the captured face of a person who no longer exists. That face, those eyes- they locked me with them into that moment, before the secrets, the lies, the anger and the walls.
A sound pulled my eyes away and I exited the capsule abruptly, deposited back into the future.
"Goodbye, my Love."
Grief flooded where the anger had coursed.
They are dead, that girl and boy. Lost to the sands of time.
Buried, in the waves of history.
