The Shadows

by Alex North

How every good parent says it, and how often they’re wrong.

A small light in the shadows. It was like a candle flame I wanted to cup with my hands, blow on gently, and bring to brighter life. But, of course, there was always a danger when you did that.

Teenagers were not rational, was the point, and the world was not always kind to them.

you didn’t need to think about something for it to affect you. I had been knocked off course, and by keeping my eyes closed, I had never been able to correct that trajectory.

When people think they’ve worked something out for themselves, they become more invested in holding on to it as truth.

But everything is okay until it isn’t. People are there, large as life and taken for granted, and then they aren’t.

You know you need to let each other go, but it’s so sad and difficult, and so you don’t until

you have to. Until the hurt of keeping someone outweighs the hurt of losing them.