preface: This is a fictionary tale about a fictional man and his fictional life. Any attempt to draw parallels of this tale to real life are not only useless, but without merit. I am not talking about you, me, or anybody else that we may know. It is simply a story about life. It is neither happy nor sad, just a tale of what life can be. Enjoy it if you wish or skip over it. I don’t mind either way.

Once upon a time in a world not unlike our very own there lived a boy named Joe. By all measures, Joe was an ordinary boy. No regal origins can lay their claim on Joe, no claims to fame could be traced to him, no special powers were possessed by him. In fact, he was much like every other boy in the world.

He grew up in modest surroundings in a modest home in a modest neighborhood. He had the average assortment of friends and grew up with the average experiences a boy of his age would be expected to have with a life in the suburbs.

He fell off his bicycle and cried at the scrapes on his knees when his training wheels were first taken off. A fair share of bullies tormented his youth, enough to seed a sense of compassion for those who cannot fend for themselves when he grew up. When he was seven he had his own lemonade stand where he sold lemonade to passerbys and found much delight when a nickel chimed its melodious clink in his collection jar.

He had the usual childhood. Nothing terribly traumatic, nothing terribly exotic. Just your normal lifestyle.

That is, until he met her. When he had first set eyes on her, she seemed like any other girl. There was nothing extraordinary about her. Angelic music did not queue whenever their eyes met, a halo could not be found hovering abover her head…no, she was just like you or me. At first glance, anyway.

They became friends. They grew to know each other and as some friends tend to do, they started to fall for each other.

Soon Joe realized things about her that he had not noticed before. She seemed to float, just ever so, delicately above the ground. She always breezed by with just the ever-so-slight scent of an exotic blend of fruit matching her exotic eyes…oh, her eyes! Whenever he gazed in them, he felt a little part of him fall just that much more for her.

There were a million things about her that he noticed. The ever so gentle curve of her face, how the lines seem to curve so delicately to perfection. Every mannerism of hers endeared her to him even more. Every quirk, every little eccentricity only made her more beautiful that before. He was a scholar of her, her details, her expressions, her moods. He wanted to know all that there was to know about her and then he wanted to be a part of that.

Where she walked, flowers bloomed. When she entered a room, his heart would open to her, like a flower to the sun. Indeed, they were in love.

What once was two people, now were a pair. Two lives, separate for years, merged as one, each disbelieving that they were able to exist without the other. The birds were singing songs of delight as they walked together. The sun shone bright upon them as if to highlight their happiness. It was a love-inspired utopia.

These were two people who were in love. They were normal, average people, but they had found something extraordinary. They had found something far beyond what they thought was possible. They had felt something greater than they had ever felt before.

Neither of them really could forsee what was ahead of them. Neither of them really thought that anything could change. Neither of them conceived that a different future was in store for them. But life, neither cruel nor kind by nature, had other plans.

The darkness came as quickly as the light had found them. What once was a couple was now two disjointed souls. All of the joy had melted away and all that was left was darkness. Shock, denial, anger, followed and then came the period of depression.

Where once there was boundless joy now grew an indescribable void of pain. Every breath that Joe had once effortlessly taken became a labored effort. The tears first came flooding out of his eyes like an overflowing river whose course ran wild. Then they subsided and were replaced with an emptiness so profound he knew not what to do.

Eating and sleeping became forced. Joe felt neither tired nor hungry, but forced himself to satisfy the needs of his body. How could something so wonderful, so delightful crumble away? How could things become what they were? Was it something he said? Was it something he did? Was it something he didn’t say? Was it something he didn’t do? What? How? Why? Why? Why?

These questions ravaged his mind, yet he could not find the answers.

With time, though, he began to realize that there was nothing he did or didn’t, nothing he said or didn’t that could have changed things. He had regrets, but he realized that whatever regrets he had didn’t matter anymore. Things were done and were not meant to be undone.

Still more time passed and the pain began to dull. He would never forget Jane, the way that she touched his life, the way that she had forever changed him, the way that she would inspire him to love. No, these were things that Joe would never forget. It was his first lesson in love…the ability and fragility of love.

Despite his unsuccessful run at love, Joe tried to believe that this was not his lost chance at destiny. He tried to believe that someone was out there waiting for him to find her. He told himself all of these things and as time passed he started to believe them instead of forcing the empty words on himself.

Joe had to believe that there was more in store for him. He looked around and saw a world where thousands, no millions of couples find that other person who they share their life with. He sees the evidence around him, there is happiness all around him. And he believes that he will become a part of it.

And so Joe ventures through life searching and waiting patiently for his turn to be a part of the happiness that he once felt so passionately before. He doesn’t know when it may start again, but he lives with hope. Tomorrow is a new day with a new promise. He is ready to meet tomorrow and its possibilities.