Impossible to Forget

by Imogen Clark

The unlikeliest people are hiding halos beneath their hats.

she had wanted nothing more than to dismiss him as being unworthy of her thoughts, but her imagination had had other ideas and so there he still was, clearly preserved in her memory.

‘What about NOW? You need to grab life with both hands and hold on to it tight.’

‘You’re so busy looking forward to what is to come that you’re missing what you have in the here and now.’

‘I have no idea. Which of us can see into the future? I just know that whatever I end up doing, it will be exactly the right thing for the time.’

when you get a start like I had, it’s hard enough to plan what you’re going to have for lunch, let alone the rest of your life.’

If she didn’t rely on anyone else then no one could let her down. And no one could hurt her, either. She’d been hurt enough. She wasn’t open for any more heartache.

the whole world doesn’t revolve around you, you know. Stuff happens whilst you’re busy floating about the planet without a care.’

he still made her head and her stomach spin a little when she first saw him.

Becky had stolen Leon from them, or Leon had allowed himself to be stolen. Angie wasn’t sure which was worse.

Looking back wasn’t an occupation that Angie had ever wasted any time on. What was the point? She couldn’t change the past.

‘When you’ve got no plan then what is there to regret? Life is just one long adventure.

Life wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad, either.

It was like magic, an alchemy of sorts. From the least prepossessing components, her body had created a living thing. It was nothing short of miraculous. A baby.

She wasn’t fazed by what lay ahead. Like everything in her life, she would just make it up as she went along.

Goals

She could feel the little peephole of hope that she had allowed to open up inside her closing like a touched sea anemone, its tiny tentacles being sucked safely back inside.

She had hoped for more from him than he had demonstrated himself capable of, and she couldn’t help but feel let down.

She needed to snap out of it. She would start today. Right now.

She was transformed. Gone was the Angie of the last decade and here was someone new. A new Angie to begin this new part of her life.

she had discovered the all-consuming maternal love that you read about. This was how it felt to love another person totally and unconditionally. The feeling was new to Angie, but already she knew she would never lose it, that it had become a part of who she was.

‘I’ve missed you. I really have.’ ‘Not so much that you’d actually do something about it though,’

There’s someone else.’ The pain was instantaneous and real, as if someone had taken aim and fired a bullet straight into her chest. For a second she couldn’t take in any oxygen; all her airways seemed blocked and panic shot through her as she struggled to breathe.

‘Is that it, then?’ he asked, making one last stab at getting her to engage, feeble though it was. Four words to save four years.

There was a kind of logic to his approach to life, Angie could see now. If you never aim too high, then you never have too far to fall. It was fundamentally self-limiting though,