. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . where ImagInatIon comes to play

Tuesday 8 November 2011

window

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When Adam was a young boy he believed that everything was possible. His dad told him so. His dad was an important person with an important boss and worked in a very big building. He even had a window. Adam didn't understand the significance of the window but it seemed to be very important to his dad's success. He 'had it all', they said. And a window.

That's why Adam didn't understand why this one night he found his father crying. He was pretty sure he wasn't meant to see, but the bedroom door had slipped open and Adam couldn't help but see. When his dad noticed Adam standing there, he rushed to the door and slammed it shut, and Adam was scared.

He didn't understand the tears and he didn't understand why his dad wanted so bad to hide them. He had never seen his dad cry before. He would have forgotten all about that night, maybe, except that it happened again.

When Adam became a man he didn't believe everything was possible. He didn't know what to believe. But it didn't matter so much if he had a window.
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3 comments:

Anthony Duce said...

A good piece. Funny how we rarely see our fathers as incapable of just being grown up boys. The importance of the windowed office…. I remember when I thought such accomplishments were important too.

Unknown said...

I suspect any boy, any father will see themselves in either or both of these people. But you express, in your simple, plain-spoken narrative, profound moments in a person's life to which any man or woman will relate.
And, because your words are so direct, so unaffected, so honest, the images and the powerful moments they describe, stand out so very distinctly...as they would in the boy's memory. This is a well-crafted, brief, very long story.

Marjolaine Hébert said...

Thank you! It's always interesting to me to see what comes out in 7 minutes ..