Seven Steps Away

Seven steps. That's all she needed. Everything could have been so different now had she not been
seven steps away. It didn't seem right. How can seven steps change somebody's life like that? Seven freaking steps! And with no warning!

No. You never expect it to be so random, so day-to-day-like. It was just too much. These things happen to other people, but not to her. No. It can't be. She raised her eyes to the skies.
Is this some twisted joke? How could the skies be so blue? So cloudless? Isn't it supposed to be the end of the world right now? No hair-raising thunders? No life-drowning tidal waves?

How? How can the world seem the same, when it is anything but. No. It would never be the same again. Don't they see? Don't they know? The hurried people in the street don't even bother looking at her. In fact, they don't bother looking at anyone. Their foggy, expressionless eyes stare at the misty horizon lurking behind the city line. They can't hear her silent screams. Her mute cries. The world can go to hell, for all they care.

She walks back, defeated. How does she even have the energy to walk? Shouldn't she be lying lifeless on the ground by now? The dry autumn winds lift up the red leaves on the side walk, swirling
them in the air. She follows their journey with her aching eyes, watching as they dance their last
soundless dance before falling dry and crumpled on the gray cement. Winter is just around the corner.

Maybe it wasn't him, she tells herself. Maybe her mind was just playing tricks on her again? But,
just the slight chance that it was him...Nothing could be worse than this dormant hope. Just when she thought that all is lost, that there was no reason to keep her hopes up any longer, it woke up again, shaking the ground beneath her feet. 

She already accepted it. The ugly, cruel reality, following her wherever she would go. Seeing
him there , on that bus, after all those years, flipping the page of a book, his clear hazel eyes, focused on the story hidden there, inside, brought it all back.

By the time she realized that it was him, it was already too late. The bus left the station and she just stood there, frozen and mortified. That desperate hope burning her from the inside, made her run after the bus, waving. She wanted to scream. God, how much did she want to scream. Please, stop! Stop! But no voice came out.

It was like losing him all over again. No mother should survive this. It has been 10 years since her precious child disappeared. How could she find him and lose him in a split of a second? Only
seven steps separated them. Seven steps making forever seem longer. Longer and colder.