Short Story number 1

Short Story number 1: Inspired by the song «Star, Star» by The Frames.

He was an average man with an average life. He was brought up in an average family with average dreams. Every since he was a child, he was told how is life should be, what steps he should take and what paths he should follow. His mother and father would have all the answers regarding his future, materialized in the form of rigid guide lines, which had to be strictly followed. These were like a road map, with intricate route lines, but with no secondary roads, in which, one could get lost to most likely find unsuspicious surprises.

Through the course of his life, he always followed the road map with accurate precision, but once in a while, a spark lightened up in his eyes and ignited, at the back of his mind, this blunt and piercing voice that seemed to tell him that life had got to be more than he was raised to believe. On those occasions, a certain restlessness and uneasiness assaulted his heart. These were the times when the path chosen for him and the course of his life was questioned. But every time his doubts and fears were shared with his family, whatever seeds that were just about to germinate, were annihilated without mercy. Those seeds of hope, which should be nurtured and cherished, were left to die because he lacked the strength to fight against the current of thoughts, opinions and catastrophic predictions that were meant to keep him on the route outlined for his life.  

 Nonetheless, as he got older, those seeds of hope became more and more recurrent, and that fact made him question things and analyze the reality that surrounded him.

 He saw many discouraged people, unable or unwilling to let go the ever turning wheel of their life, executing meaningless efforts and mechanical gestures, striving to fulfill their imposed mission. In all those hopeless faces he recognized himself. And he questioned, what made those people, including himself, wander lost in the crowd, following the herd, without asking where the path is leading, and mostly, why are they walking it.  

He realized that the inner mechanisms of the mind and life itself shared a similar pattern. Like our minds, life also has underlying mysteries waiting to be unveiled. This clear assumption immediately impelled him to think about the classic image of an iceberg. Like this colossal phenomenon of nature, life holds within an inherent duplicity. One side is luminous and visible; the other side is obscure and hidden. He was only experiencing the visible part of it, the one that laid above sea level. However, the biggest part of it, the most mysterious and the richest one, laid below the surface, far from the human sight, only reachable by ones imagination or will of power.

 Maybe it was time that he summoned again the old spark, which stubbornly, time and time again, ignited in his eyes, and this time let the voice speak loudly from his heart. He now knows that these are signs from the universe, messages from the gods conspiring in favor of those who dared to listen to the big plan, which, is often beyond the obvious, beneath the surface.  

 In order to find happiness one must be willing to abandon the easiest and safest path and be ready to take the plunge into the unknown. Only then, would we be able to take steps towards ourselves, look deep into our souls to find out what we really are and what we really want. That is where life begins.

                                                                                                       by Raquel R.