Word Prompt: Chronology

Audio-Visual Challenge—Musical Mastery*: "Imagine" by John Lennon. Linked on profile.

"Never forget that on any given day, you could step out one single door, and your whole life could change forever."

Edward slowly sits his cup on the table. His face is pale, like he just saw a ghost.

"What is it?" I'm nervous again.

"Uh. I... I just recently heard that. You just, you just took me off guard is all." I watch the Adam's apple tediously bob in his throat.

"Really?" I whisper it. My voice lost somewhere in irony.

"Yeah." He turns to look at me and my heart stutters. His eyes look so sad.

And lost.

I want him to talk to me. I want him to open up and maybe we can just help each other.

Everyone needs someone.

Right?

"You wanna leave?" I realize this crowded, loud restaurant may not be the best place for us to talk.

...~{sYa}~...

We head downtown toward Centennial Park, of course I'm leading the way, but at least he's close beside me.

My hands are tucked in my jacket, his are buried in the pocket of his jeans. My steps are quicker than his. I can barely keep up with his long legs, even when he slows down.

"So tell me about it." I try and initiate the conversation.

"Tell you what?"

The silence between us wasn't bad, it just was ...silent. I am still hoping for that part where he spills his guts to me.

"Whatever you need to."

We walk more, soon finding an empty bench at the perimeter of the park.

I take in the scene around us. The joggers with their music on concealing the noise of the world. The dogs and their owners finding happiness in mundane things. Lovers cuddling together, two souls becoming one.

Then there's Edward and I. Two people with some sort of connection that hasn't quite connected yet.

Edward shifts to turn on the seat toward me. "Tell me what you think about the world Bella."

His voice is pleading and broken.

I want to be his glue.

"What do you mean?" I angle myself toward him.

Now we have our own cocoon to rest in.

"Why do things happen? Is it fate? Is it destiny? Is it just coincidence?"

Those are more than just questions.

"Gosh Edward, I'm... young. I'm inexperienced and I don't know much about the world. But I'd like to think that everything happens for a purpose. Good or bad. That there is this sequential order of events that have to take place before the next thing can happen. Does that make sense?"

He barely nods.

"Why?" I have to ask.

"Because," he hesitates, "I'm not really sure why I'm here." He looks around before letting his eyes settle on me. "It's like there was this outside force making decisions for me – something was drawing me here. I, I don't like it."

I nod because I know what he means. I really do.

"If I don't have control of my decisions Bella, what do I have control of?"

I don't let his doubt linger between us for long.

"Everything," I answer.

Then I take his hand in mine.

He looks at our joined hands.

He smiles.

A big smile.

Suddenly, the sun is brighter, warmer.

And his eyes, they are warm too. And not so lost anymore.

Maybe this is what it's like to finally find your destiny.

"We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected." ~Ben Okri