Stories from an Empty Room

Between the Shadow and the Light

"He's not ready yet."
"So? He can manage on his own."

I hear two people arguing, just right outside my room.
Arguing whether they should let me go, or let me stay.

"He can't even walk by himself yet. What do you expect from him?"
"He will learn. He's Versatile, malleable in many ways. He'll make it, even if he has to crawl."

I never really thought of myself as something of worth before. I really just wanted to make people happy.

"He'll fall, and fall, and fall. He'll hurt himself. What are we to do when that happens?"
"We'll watch him get back up."
"Aren't we sadists?"
"Maybe, but he will improve with every scar he'll carry."

"To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity; the next is, to strive, and deserve to conquer: but he whose life has passed without a contest, and who can boast neither success nor merit, can survey himself only as a useless filler of existence; ad if he is content with his own character, must owe his satisfaction to insensibility."
An exerpt from Samuel Johnson's book, The Adventurer.

"He's irrational. Impulsive when it comes to decisions. He might fall, intoxicated by his own words."
"His irrationality will be his compass to the path he's going to take."
"He's a blind man, throwing stones to follow his path."
"So let him be."

Scared to face what's beyond the drapes society has placed over me, I have expectations. I see the world as a harsh place, a place where one will loosely navigate if he is a fool, a place where one might never feel the grass.

"The world is a big place, what will we do if he gets lost?"
"We shall be there for him. No more will he be alone."

I woke up inside a room. the right side felt like the winter breeze. Cold, dark,and full of dead trees. I don't see how one may survive this.
The other side felt like summer. The water washing over my feet and the leaves from the oak tree slowly spread across the fields as the wind blows.

This is my haven.

This is where I belong.