Hold the time up please
Every attempt at hanging out felt like a mockery of our past vibrant lives, so we stopped. COURTESY PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Everywhere we went felt like revisiting ruins where our life had once thrived.
- Every attempt at hanging out felt like a mockery of our past vibrant lives, so we stopped.
- As I held a sobbing Flash, I understood how she felt.
My friend called me at 2am in a terrible panic. It being her 40th birthday, she realised she was officially old. “What will I do Nita? I feel as if I have wasted my life,” she cried over the phone.
Flash sounded so grief-stricken I was afraid that she would do something terrible to herself. I drove to her house. And the sight that greeted me showed that I had made the right decision to go over. This wreck was not our glamorous Flash. You see, Flash and I used to be part of a big active group of good friends who went out every night for drinks, shisha, music and dancing.
Club owners, restaurant managers and events promoters courted us with freebies and offers. But with time, things started to change. The group started shrinking as members went abroad for better jobs or further studies. Those who stayed coupled up and became mothers and fathers who could not afford to go out every night.
Eventually it was just Flash and I left standing. Everywhere we went felt like revisiting ruins where our life had once thrived. Every attempt at hanging out felt like a mockery of our past vibrant lives, so we stopped. As I held a sobbing Flash, I understood how she felt.
“I wish I at least had a child, then I would not be so lonely,” Flash’s plaintive voice piped up from my bosom bringing me back to the sad moment.
“You can still have children sweetheart, your life has just in fact began. And this is the perfect age at which to make that commitment because you see when you have a child, you are looking at the next 18 years of your life of being tied to the schedule of what it is to have a child and even a marriage. To not have that is so freeing,” I heard myself saying not sure whether I was making a case for myself or for my distraught friend.
“You are right, Nita. I hope to God we have not run out of time,” she replied with a little smile that looked like that weak sunshine after a heavy rain. As she calmed down I sent a silent prayer to God, the Universe and every powerful being out there to please hold time back for these two souls.
