There was darkness in his house. The blinds were opened, by him or by her. The sunlight did pass through the window, but there was still darkness.

He couldn’t sit there all day, he thought. So, he wore his cozy socks and his boots. Yes, the sun was flaming the streets. He needed to regain his warmth, though. There must be a regaining process after a giving-out one.

He clicked the doorknob. Then he smelled his hands. A rosy scent. He walked on the carpet to the stairs. There were few paintings along the corridor. The first one had an apple and a banana in the bowl. The bowl was brown, matching the colour of the table. It was the curve that made the distinction. The apple was half-hidden, as if it was eaten by someone, but he could not determine. The banana, as usual, was curvy. But it did not curve upwards. It was showing him a sad face.

The second one was a princess with a pink dress and a crown. The pink was not the one of the peach. It was a pale shade of pink, almost unseen. The crown was blue. The princess opened her mouth, as if she was going to say, “I am stuck inside of this. Rescue me.”, while she extended her arm to the frame. Did she see this? He thought. What good paintings painted by some unknown artists, he thought. When he reached this, he had arrived the end of the corridor.

Was I walking too fast? He was thinking. He didn’t appreciate the pieces deep enough to come up with a meaning, but there were no titles nor captions. The eyes of the princess looked into the wall, eternally, until one day when the building would collapse, he thought. Such sorrow eyes, he thought.

His eyes were watery.

He missed a step and fell down the stairs.

I’m on top of the world, eh. I’m on top of the world, eh.

His eyes were watery. It didn’t hurt.

He opened the door, trying to regain his consciousness. The rays of light directly shone into his eyes. It was like a brand new day, but not brand new.

He looked around the street. He didn’t want to head to Westville. It was enough of her for today. Instead, he found no restaurant without a queue. In fact, there were only 3 restaurants on the street. No big surprise, he thought. He didn’t even want to eat at those restaurants, he thought, the food was not tasty.

He headed for the subway station. He saw umbrellas on top of his head on the way. There was not even one drip of rain today. One drip. No more, he thought, no more of the thinking. He knew he should be carefree right now, as he had everything and nothing.

His mobile phone rang.

Have I given me my number? He thought. There was no trace of that memory. But it was not her.

“Victor, where are you?”

“I’m at Ineast. Who are you?”

“You know who I am. I thought you are arriving today. Why have you not begun your journey?”

Oh, the journey. Had he not started, or had he started. It was confusing. The decision was crucial. His brain reminded every second of the 4-hour journey. He thought he had decided to give up everything, but he realized he could not.

The system jammed. It was near to shut down.

“Hello? Victor?”

The sunrise. Why would he forget about the sunrise he had promised her?

“Yes. Well, I have to be honest with you?”

“What?”

Think of the future…

“Wait a second.”

What future could he gain? It was an opportunity he had been founding for months. Abandoning the hard work was hard.

“I’ll call you later.”

He hesitated. He thought he could let go of something that was unimportant. He missed out the decision.

The decision about what was important and what was not.

The decision which would affect his life.

Life, what a joke.