Stories that Don't Involve Shorts

Leaf of Time

A cool breeze blew by the National Park while dry, orange leaves fell from trees as tall as an office building. The wind carried some of them to an old bench where Markus was typing out a report on statistics on his laptop. He took notice of them, but he reminded himself to not get distracted.

He always stopped himself from paying attention to the world around him, especially when he was doing something important. It had always been like that ever since he was a child. At the age of eight, he scored straight As for the entire year which left both teachers and students with their mouths open.

As a result, he had to work tremendously hard to not only maintain his scores but to reach his peers' expectations. That meant a strict schedule with less free time.

He succeeded academically every year with that schedule which gave him well-deserved pride and more reason to increase his study time. Unfortunately, as we all know, everything comes at a cost.

"What do you mean we can't play anymore?" his best friend, Jack, cried out. "You've been studying all week! Surely you're tired, right?"

Markus shook his head. "As much as I would love to, I don't have time. I still need to study."

"But-"

Before Jack can finish his sentence, Markus slammed the door and retreated to his bedroom where numerous Math problems awaited.

To be truthful, Markus longed for a second of freedom. He sometimes stared at the window, watching the neighborhood kids play tag and scream in delight. He imagined himself among that group, running around and climbing trees.

He ran to the door and almost opened it to apologize to Jack, but books kept pulling him towards them, and suddenly, he was back to where he was, answering questions again and again.

Jack tried to contact Markus, leaving voicemails and receiving that dreaded "Please try again", but he would not get answer. Every knock on the door was ignored, and every time he tried to speak to Markus, Markus would not reply, buried in the events of World War 1. Each day separated them more and more with Jack losing hope of ever speaking to Markus. By the time they graduated high school, they resembled strangers more than former best friends.

At that day, Jack gave it one more try.

"Hey, Markus," he said when he saw Markus at the drink stall.

For the first time in years, Markus looked at him and smiled. "Hey, Jack! Long time no see."

Jack had hope. He opened his mouth to ask, "How have you been doing?", but before he can get a word out, foreign students pulled Markus aside, exclaiming, "Congratulations! You're accepted in our college!"

Jack sighed. He left the graduation hall, holding back tears as Markus left the conversation with a Spanish book in hand.

Now, adulthood arrived, and Markus lost contact with Jack completely. Instead, he was sitting on the park bench, finishing up his report with a conclusion and results. Once the final word was added, he saved his file and closed his laptop, sighing with a smile of satisfaction.

He looked up and appreciated the colorful trees. People like him rode their bikes across the park, and there were also people who just hung out near the trees either reading, talking or watching everything just like him.

Then he payed attention to the children.

Children who played with the swings and the slides, having picnics with their parents and kicking leaves. Children who didn't have a care in the world and just wanted to live their lives to the fullest.

Children... like Jack.

He felt a pang of sadness in his heart. Memories flooded his mind. Most of the memories consisted of equations, complex stories and words of a different language.