Word: Window
The Other Side
Delsin stared out the window in disappointment.
On the other side of the glass barrier, he observed what he felt was freedom. Something that had been unrightfully taken from him.
He observed the children running around on the field. Something he could no longer do. He observed them playing games with their friends. Something he could no longer do. One of the younger boys kicked a ball almost a metre high. Something which he couldn't do and now something which he could never try.
Instead he was on the other side of the window. The darker, more depressing side. Delsin was practically living hell on Earth. A hell which he desperately wanted to escape.
Something else caught his attention. A flock of birds which seemed to be migrating south. Wouldn't it be great to fly? He thought. Before this he had never even given a thought to the ability to fly or even imagined what it must've been like. But now, on the other side, he had all his life, until he took his last breath, to think about these things.
As the birds disappeared over the horizon, he found something new to observe. The environment. Delsin so desperately wanted to break out of these invisible chains he was in and to go to the other side of the window. He wanted to feel each blade of grass tickling his fingertips, the breeze chilling his cheeks and the sun warming his neck. What he would give now to feel such things. But now it was too late.
By this time, Delsin had grown tired thinking of what he could no longer have, do or feel. He was jealous. A feeling which hardly ever resided within him, not until now. He was jealous of the children and the birds. Jealous of things they had and he didn't. Even though these things didn't even come at a cost.
Delsin frowned, his eyebrows knitting together as he thought about what could have been. If only he had slowed down when he should have. If only he had heeded his wife's warning. If only he wasn't drunk. If only he was a better man, husband, father. If only... But Delsin knew there was no point, there were no second chances in life. You only have the one and you must spend it wisely. Sure life doesn't cost a thing but in return life takes more than it should if not taken care of. If not nursed.
If Delsin had taken this into account sooner, he may not be where he is now. On the other side of the window. On the other side of the barrier which blocked him from freedom. If Delsin had cared, he wouldn't be sitting in invisible chains, unable to move a muscle. If Delsin had cared, he could be out there running free, feeling grass, the wind and the sun and much more. He would again be able to experience the free things that life has to offer instead of the ones that cost him dearly.
But it was too late now. There was no going back. He chose the costly things over the free, and this disappointed him. It made his heart ache. He so desperately wanted to escape but he couldn't. He had unknowingly chosen this fate.
As a nurse appeared in front of him, pained memories dripping with blood stained his mind. The pain was too much to handle, too much to bear, but he had chosen this fate.
He cried himself to sleep every night, mourning the loss of people he cared so greatly about. The people whom he had failed to tell, even show, how much he loved them. He didn't know he had such a great life until it had bee n taken away from him. Taken away too soon.
The images of the crash were even worse than nightmares. It kept him awake all night, but he couldn't do anything about it. His invisible chains stopped him from doing so. Instead all he could do was stare at the ceiling. The same ceiling he had been staring at for the three years. The ceiling of the room gave him no comfort, it only whispered to him what he already knew. What he had been told for the past three years.
Now sitting on the metal chair which he now lived in, he thought about the times where he had felt like sitting for a whole day. He wished he could do that nearly everyday. Just sit in front of a TV and have no interruptions. How stupid was he? Now all he wanted to do was get up, be able to stand. He no longer wanted to sit in front of a TV with no interruptions. He wanted to hear his wife nagging him to take out the rubbish or his daughter asking him to read her a bedtime story. He wanted all that back. He realised now how ungrateful he was to life.
Life wasn't something that you could balance on the palm of your hand. It wasn't that easy. It was fragile and could break apart at any moment. Delsin's already had, and it was a horrible thing. Nothing in the world could mend his life back, back to what it used to be. It was impossible, even for God.
Yet again, Delsin stared out at the other side. Thinking about what could've been. What he could've had. But it was too late now. All Delsin could do was count his days until he took his last breath. Until he was free from his invisible chains.
