The Open Door - Sean and Kaycee

A Flashback Courtesy of the Universe

Sometimes you can only move forward by looking back. I'm sensing that you've paused right there, perplexed as to what I could possibly mean. Perhaps you're wondering, how is it possible to think about the future if you're fixated with the past? How can you move ahead if you're facing the wrong direction? You might argue that the past is in the past. What's done is done, no questions asked.

But let me put it into simpler terms for you. Think about the purpose of a rear view mirror. Without looking back, there's no way for you to see what is ahead. Those who look blindly ahead and forget to acknowledge what is behind will almost certainly crash. Life is a 360-degree experience -- it's impossible to get the full picture without looking in all directions.

Still confused, are you? Imagine this. The little moments in our life are like pebbles in a stream. On their own, they may seem insignificant and forgettable, but put together, they dictate the course in which our river flows.

So without further ado, it is time to take out a magnifying glass. Because we are about to take a closer look at one moment, in one city, in the lives of two souls. Perhaps they didn't know it at the time, but this would be a moment that would change the course of both of their lives forever.

*****

New York City

June 17th, 2017

New York City. The city that never sleeps. Especially in the summer, when the air is so heavy that you can almost feel it collapse upon you in all directions until, defeated, you succumb under the weight of it. The heat is so stifling that all bodily functions shut down, in order to preserve energy efficiency. Everyone moves through molasses, not really thinking or feeling anything.

And yet, the boy is still wearing a hoodie, almost as an act of defiance. He's put the hood on and pulled the strings until his face is totally obscured. People on the streets stop to stare at the boy, maybe in disbelief, maybe in amusement. But he doesn't pay them any attention at all.

He is walking with a tall, fierce-looking woman. His mother, it would seem. The pair of them are almost comical, walking down the busy streets of New York City. The proud, dignified, and well-dressed woman juxtaposed with the hunched, hooded, solemn-looking figure.

But the situation is far from comical. If you looked just a little closer, you would see that every few minutes, the woman checks her phone for a new update from New York General Hospital. You'd notice that every time her phone dings, her brow furrows a little bit deeper, the wrinkles on her forehead become a little bit more pronounced, and she casts a sidelong glance at her son.

You would see that every few minutes, the boy stops in his tracks and tells his mother "I've changed my mind, let's please go back." And that every time he stops, his mother pulls him along the busy sidewalk and says "No. Your father and I want to do everything to help you achieve your dream. There's no turning back now."

It is in this fashion that Sean Lew arrived at the subway station on June 17th, 2017. But unbeknownst to him, another soul was close behind.

*****

The girl had snuck out of her apartment on the Upper East Side early that morning. She had tiptoed around her sister's bed, careful not to wake her up. She'd packed up her dance bag and changed into her dance clothes in the guest bathroom. Most importantly, she had managed to avoid her parents, who would have asked her where she thought she was going so early in the morning, young lady.

She hears their voices intermittently in her head as she walks to the subway station. Mostly fragments of the gigantic fight that they had had the night before. This is getting out of hand. You're not going to some stupid audition, and that's final. Dance is a hobby, not a career. You need to come down from whatever dream world you're living in and face reality.