Something I wrote a while ago.

Jan 04, 2007 22:05

It's called, "A Return and Update." I hope you like it.

A man walks into a dim, neglected study, brushes the dust off of his favorite book, and curls up in his old, musty office chair. He sighs through a sore throat, musing at the nostalgia of it. It's amazing, he thinks, how things seem to slip into the back of your mind. Friends do. Names and dates do. Habits and hobbies do. Everything requires constant maintenance, he thinks to himself. Shrugging, he turns another wrinkled yellow page and smiles through the dusty afternoon light. He looks around at the shelves and tables that once held such fond memories. He stands, dog-ears the page he was reading, and walks out of the room, returning minutes later with a trash can, and two boxes of new, more recently familiar literature. With the boxes, he unloads some of his favorite, well-read books. Some C.S. Lewis, some Sartre and Camus, and a fair few Isaac Asimov volumes. Taking them all in his loving arms, he places them among the others, noticing with a smile how the newer, more used books blend so well with the old. Turning around, he looks once again at his cluttered desk, covered with dusty, once important papers. Picking each up, one by one, he throws them all away; bills, invitations, and memos, all reaching equality in the garbage. He takes his pocket square from his shirt, and dusts his desk, his nearest shelf, and the next, and the next, and the next. After a while, his once-valuable silk square becomes tattered, torn on a tricky part of a bookend, and covered in dust. Amazing, he thinks, how willing I am to sacrifice something so small, and rebuild something so great.

A Return and Update.
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