A Self-Study Within A Broken Mind

It was sunny on Sunday, so I ventured out in the afternoon to enjoy the little park near my apartment building. It was filled with people walking hand-in-hand, and with dogs on leashes. A few of them sat on the flimsy little folding chairs sharing food on the feeble tables as birds trotted over to peck at the scraps that fell to the ground. I sat down on one of the wobbly chairs and cracked a book reserved for those specific times in the park. All around me, other people were equally sinking into alternate worlds. My other dream was to meet someone at a break of a chapter, with a glance. We would be reading the same book, connecting our lives from that moment in a smile. I opened the fifth book of a certain series. It dealt with the life of Mike Procket , detailing his realistic adventures from an outcast into a social butterfly, all thanks to a distant relative who turned out to be a con man. The fifth book was titled: “ Cut Me Down the Middle .” By Deresanzi Mills . She was popular e...

It was a few weeks later that I saw Fiona again, though we spoke on the phone often and texted when too tired to speak. I learned about her past a bit more. She spent her youth upstate , where her old house still remained. The one that claimed her parents’ lives was in the suburbs, after they left behind the forest home. She enjoyed going back into the wilderness to revisit memories of the past. Luke was the only reason she did not want me to come over. There was no telling how he would react to my being close to Fiona. She was afraid that he would think he’d been replaced and lash out. She spent a lot of time worrying as his caretaker. That time spent apart only got us closer together, almost dangerously close. She wrote for me, both erotica quick-fire texts and serious ideas of the world underlined by comedy. I was getting to know her mind by this divide, and she got to know mine. I told her my fears, or at least the few I was aware of, and she confided in me about a few past event...

The next day was a Saturday, and I decided to call Fiona . While dialing the number, a thought flickered out to the flame-haired secretary I collided with. With that in mind, my heart skipped a beat when Fiona’s voice chimed in. I felt ashamed for thinking of another while calling the “one”. “Hello?” she asked. My hand almost dropped the phone from the mental reset. “Hi, it’s Finn here,” I said. “We met at the park yesterday.” There was a pause. “Oh, yes,” she replied. “Thought you’d call last night.” “I waited just in case there was some tradition,” I said, trying to stop the words from coming out of my mouth. The world I knew put strange barriers in place for these sorts of things. “But then I thought that it’s Saturday, and it would be great if we could meet up again.” There was another pause on her side. “Can I ask you a forward question?” She asked. I nodded, only to realize I was on the phone. In my mind, she was right in front of me. “Go ahead,” I answered, trying to imagine wha...