Soul

Prologue

      Life.

     It stands for so many things. It is a simple four-letter word, but the meaning behind it is so great, not even the brightest philosopher out there can understand its meaning.

     L – It stands for love. Love of the deepest, most genuine kind. Not what you get from a pet, or a relationship, but a love for who you are and the world you live on. The real you, not the one you pretend to be, all full of shit and trying to make everyone like you, when in reality, they probably don’t like you and, face it, never will. A love for the beauty of nature, and a respect for what you have because, in the flash of a second, it could be gone, just… like… that. The dictionary meaning of love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for… anything really.

     I- Ingenuity. It means being cleverly inventive or resourceful. It may weird to relate cleverness to life, but, if you think about it hard enough, it is the most relevant to anything. We make decisions based on our ingenuity. When you are sitting at the dining room table and there is a stack of homework in front of you, you think ‘I can do this now, or, I can go to that party Ricky was telling me about instead. I have all the time in the world.’ But, do you? Without ingenuity, life would be full of problems; so many wrong decisions, people getting hurt, manipulated, destroyed… people dying around you at all hours of the day. But, is anyone really going to stop and see what’s wrong? Odds are, probably not. Life is based on ingenuities and the cleverness of minds. And, if we use our sense to the best of its abilities, who knows what we can overcome.

     V- Life works in so many wondrous ways, leaving us vulnerable to what is happening around us. The world is a vulnerable place, full of vulnerable people. Some may believe that they are strong and courageous, but they are still vulnerable to the harshness of life. I know for a fact that I am. If a stranger walked up to me, I would feel scared and unsure. I feel vulnerable around my closest friend at times; it not like I know they will do the right thing if I needed help or will always be by my side to protect me from all the evils of this world. You can trust no one but yourself.

     This brings us to our last letter. It is the closure to many sentences and words. It is the ending to endless possibilities. Endless, it seems to portray a type of infinity, when nothing is ever endless. Everything has a life and a death. The trees that surround us, in every forest, backyard, even the ocean, all have a hidden lifespan. Many think they can live forever, and try to. They waste away doing nothing; sitting on a couch, watching re-runs of Friends when they have a whole world to explore. The Earth, it is an endless vessel of opportunities, yet, even this massive globe we live on has an ending, and that ending will be our ending as well.

            Sapphire eyes flicked upward, peered through the frosted windows. Trees and mountainside blurred past at lightning speed, trying to catch a glimpse of the passing black rout-iron train. It was a spectacular view of the vast Rocky Mountains, and it took the breath away of the young girl sitting at the window. She turned her attention back to the sleek silver pen in her hand, softly scrawling into the small rose-colored journal she had had since she was a toddler. She sighed, taking in the beauty of the scenery around her, whizzing by with the gravitational pull of the twisted metal tracks beneath her feet. Soon it would all dissipate, and reality would once again set in.

            The girl pulled the grey beany resting on her head tightly over her ears, attempting to rid the cold from her reddening ears. Silky golden locks blazed between her fingers, exposed by the small finger-holes in her once thick woolen gloves. She would give anything to stay in the mountains, on this route few trains still took. It was mostly for tourist attractions now, but she couldn’t help and let her mind wander to the days when the tracks had first been laid. A land few knew and recognized, but full of hidden potential just waiting to make itself known to the world.

            A slender pink finger pressed into the frost clouding the invisible glass of the window sill, sending a series of fitful shudders down her spin. Her finger gently traced a circle in the icy condensation, the size of the rim of a plastic cup. She focused in on the small O she had created, and all that ran through her mind was ‘perfect’. The scuttle of carts brought her focus to the hall adjacent her room, and her hands shot to the edge of the hard, green material covering the seat she had claimed at the beginning of the trip. She held her breath as the squeak of wheels came by, stopping every-so-often to see if anyone was hungry. The luminous figure of people silhouetted through the ripple glass door, coming and passing. The girl exhaled, a billow of breath leaving her thin lips. All she wanted was to be alone, and God had granted her that.

            She turned back to the small, scribbled words on the lined page, lifted her pen in her slender left hand, and continued:   

     That brings us to the concept of ‘I have all the time in the world.’ Do you really know you do when there is an explosive clock counting down the days till you will meet your end? My time is limited, just like everyone else on this small planet, but I am more wary than most. We try to change our fates, just so we can see a miniscule amount of what could have been, but why? God has given us life; lungs to breath, brains to think, a heart to hold all that is dear to us and, when the time comes, give it all back with the snap of His fingers.

     Life is so short that a single second expands to minutes, and minutes to days, and soon enough, years have passed, years we can never regain and be lost in a blur of disregard. In those years, so much could have happened, so many small, insignificant things that could have built into a whole that was more important that anything on this place we call Earth.

     My time is whittling away, slowly, but surely. I do not have much time to waste, which is why I am going to fight the current of every day normalcy. I can change some things in my life, manipulate them and create them into something much more meaningful. Today, I will change my fate. I am going to live my life to the fullest it can be, and I am going to start with something, rather, someone, who has more influence in this world than I ever can. With him, we can change tour lives, and help to change peoples who happen to cross in our paths, as well.

     The train blew out a whoosh of hot steam, sounding off a loud, squealing whistle. The girl looked up, a small, unreadable grin emerging on her lips. The train began to slow to a putter, and the station came into view, old fashioned, but somehow welcoming. She watched as the fog of black steam rose and the train stopped with a jutting halt. The cloud of black dissipated, and through that small circle she had created, now dripping with moisture, a boy came into view. He watched the train intently as passengers began to unload, unaware he was being watched. The unreadable grin grew into a full-fledged smile.