Fragments: A Collection of Thoughts, Poems & Proses

regrets

Another imaginative response to the quote, "Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets." It's about a guy with two choices - either he competes on the final round of a swimming competition which he badly trained for OR he visits his sick mother who neglected him as a child as her final dying wish. Drafted 5/05/15

He felt his heart drop along with the droplets of rain down from his shoes to the dirty pavement. In one hand, he was clutching a small, mobile phone which his dim eyes scanned through and through. 'You need to come home as soon as you can,' the text message said. 'She's dying, Patrick.' Before the tears could threaten to come, he immediately turned it off and kept it in the pocket of his coat. He thought he could forget, but the fragments of his broken childhood lingered in the corners of his mind. She could disintegrate into ashes and fly into the wind but he would still remember everything.

*

With a loud gasp, Patrick's head emerged on the surface of the cool, chlorine-filled water. With his long fingers, he took off his goggles and shaked his slick, raven hair. The lean muscles on his back marked on his skin as he climbed on the metal bars to head into the bleachers to rest. On the way, he picked up the timer which indicated his four laps took four minutes. A baritone voice at the edge of the pool startled him. "So, what did he say?"

Patrick thought his inconsistent best friend wasn't coming for swim team practice. Harry approached him, sympathetically giving him a smile. Looking down, Patrick almost didn't want to answer, but he knew Harry would understand. "He wants me to come home," he muttered, a hint of pain evident in his voice. "He says Mu--Anna is dying."

A look of concern in Harry's face furrows his eyebrows while his mouth forms into a slight shock. "I'm sorry," he said, trying to look for the right words to say. Then, with a hand on his waist, he proceeded to ask the question, "Will you come?"