First Edition (Short Story)

Part 5 Remember Your Past

Jacob took that last box along with the other two and packed them away for safe keeping. He grabbed the few folders that were thete and started perusing them. In the folders he found all sorts of guitar lessons full of scales, warm up exercises and alot of music tablature to the popular songs during the late 80's and early 90's. They we're mostly exercises for building speed and precision because he always wanted to be a guitar hero or shredmaster if you will. Those lessons ended up becoming very useful because he got really good at playing very fast leads and solos. At his current age, Jacob still had confidence in his guitar playing abilities but he also knew that he would never be as fast as he used to play when he was younger. Middle age had recently reared its ugly head and started leaving it's ugly mark on his aging body. His joints had become sore and achey with bursitis setting in, his finger joints were starting to feel the early stages of arthritis which reminded him that as a musician he was on a timer whether he liked it or not and he was always tired or exhausted, just plain ole worn out. Plus these days he had traded guitar necks made from trees to book pages that were thin slices also harvested from trees. Jacob still plays but these days he is all about the acoustic guitar, no more shredding or showing off like he used to back in the day, that baby had been put to bed a long time ago.

There wasn't really anything worth keeping except for nostalgic purposes so he decided to throw away those folders. He made it to the bottom of the shelf with just one more folder left. He got a very familiar feeling that he hasn't felt since high school upon seeing this last folder lying there waiting to be reunited with him. Unfortunately along with that familiar feeling came all of the emotions that he experienced during his high school years. It was a flood gate of pure, raw emotions both good and bad that slammed Jacob in the face like a Vietnam flashback. It was overwhelming him so much that he fell to the floor onto his knees. He thought that he had left all of those bad experiences, memories, feelings and emotions way back in high school trapped in his locker where they were supposed to stay. Instead, they followed him, haunting him unexpectedly. It's true when people say 'you can never escape your past.' You have to face it and accept it in order to have peace within yourself to move on and better your life experiences.

Jacob was finally able to collect himself and get his emotions under control. That was a wierd and random yet almost predictable trigger. Predictable only because of the timing like it was meant to happen at that exact noment. Strange indeed.