Cole
There is one thing every living creature shares through the course of their life.
We struggle.
As with anything, there are different variations of struggle, but it is a guarantee for all. And just when we might think we have one sorted, another volunteers. Being alive is just rolling with them as they come.
For Michael Masen, called Cole, his struggles were often caused by the first he faced. Speaking.
As a child he had been shy. Slow to look at someone, slow to share. That had come from being incredibly smart. Once he came around to his teacher and the classroom, that spark of intelligence leaked through.
While eventually he lost the shy aspect and could answer any question the teacher asked, he rarely truly spoke his mind. He withheld, not quite finding his voice. When he did it seemed to get him nowhere good. And in the end of third grade, his teacher threw the curveball of suggesting Cole skipping a grade. His parents hadn't been surprised at the idea, but Cole was terrified. The kids at school had already given him a hard time for keeping to himself. How would older kids be any better? As a result, starting fifth grade a year early Cole faced a few new struggles.
Within those struggles, his whole life truly began.
Now eighteen years later he was reminded that the earliest of struggles still got him into trouble, if only in new ways.
Cole didn't know what possessed him to bring up the best parts of himself to a stranger. Sure Hayley was technically a coworker, but he never offered much to the people at his freelance jobs. Maybe he'd been too distant from home. Maybe the sudden snow put him off. Maybe he hadn't been feeling inspired with his own work recently. All he knew was he'd walked downstairs feeling almost heavy, and felt a connection in seeing Hayley look the same as he.
He thought he just intended to start a conversation. Get the social circuits firing and he'd be right as rain. But when the door opened to that part of himself, his lifelong struggle with speaking his truth seemed to drop away.
Cole looked at Hayley as her pencil scratched across the paper. Tell me about them, she'd said. He didn't know if she saw a story out of his own. He didn't know that he or his other halves wanted it told. But a weight lifted in just one person listening.
"Is this on record, because you haven't sworn the blood oath."
"Perhaps not but I'm a fast learner if there's some sort of secret handshake." Hayley countered with a grin, but put down her notepad. "That was rude of me though, I'm sorry. Your tone just sparked something."
"It wasn't rude." Cole tapped his camera. "Artists instinct. I don't often think twice before snapping a picture, why should you?"
"It's not very social though." She laughed.
"We have that in common. I came in here feeling like I needed to talk. I'm not used to that." Cole shrugged.
"Because of them."
Cole nodded. "Would you call yourself a social person?"
"When I'm not chained in here." Hayley chuckled. "Actually yes. I don't have a crazy active social life but I feel like I can meld in with the best of them when the mood strikes."
"I'm not. Definitely the least social of us, despite all their work." Cole smiled as their faces came to his mind, and looked back at Hayley. "Ethan was the popular kid, and that's translated to his adult life. He bounces around place to place, job to job, making friends wherever he goes. And Anna, well." He stopped, shaking his head a little. "Anna is an odd mix of being able to live in her own little world but she also needs to mother 9 out of 10 people she meets. They leave their stamp."
Hayley gave Cole a considering look. "And you don't?"
"If I do it's because of them. We're a balance though, that's why the term soul mate resonates. Put us all together and it's like one person was split in three. Hell, we got one year on the Harry Potter trio." Cole gestured to Hayley's golden snitch mouse pad.
"Don't think that has escaped me." She said, leaning back. "Where are they now?"
"Anna is a couple hours from here; closer to the capital. Ethan is on location in Georgia right now."
"He's an actor?"
"A stunt double. He claims it's even better. We haven't been based in the same town since college years but Ethan and I manage to drop in on Anna often, or the three of us get together in Forks. Ethan's mother is still there."
"Forks?" Hayley smirked.
"It's an unfortunate town in Washington." Cole mock shuddered. "We all ran for it first chance we got. Ethan's family has a nice spot though. That helps when visits need to be made."
"I hear Washington is beautiful. But I understand the small town itch. I come from one myself." Hayley signed at her notepad and back at Cole, tilting her head. "So clearly between hating the work we do here and being small town kids, we're meant to connect."
Cole looked back at his camera. He'd always felt a need to merge his art with his friends. Documenting all their turns. Was this another avenue to that? Did it feel safe?
"Clearly." He heard himself agree. "How about I tell you a little of us. The beginning. And if it clicks and we both feel something is there, then we can find the time and place to figure it out."
Hayley bounced her pencil a few more times. "I haven't written anything that clicks in years. I don't know what I'd write, and you'll want to talk to them about it first." She put the pencil down, leaning her chair as if to settle in for the story. "For now I'd love to hear the beginning."
In the end that had always been how Cole overcame his struggle with speaking. Knowing there was someone who genuinely wanted to listen.
So he began.
