TM Prompt 208: Four
Four is such an odd number, really. What's that rhyme? Two's company, three's a crowd, and four... I don't know. Never could remember four.
There used to be three of us, before things got bad. My mother, and my father, and me. Things felt safe with three. Things felt good.
Then there were two, and really two meant one because my mother was in bed all day and we weren't a family the way we had been. You need three, really, to make two. And one could have been none, because I was hardly even me. How can you be yourself when you're at work all day, or asleep, and asleep at work and practically working when you're asleep?
And then I met Socrates. Which might have been three. And Ben might have been four. Except my mother wasn't part of that at all, and it's not as if Ben and Socrates stop at three or even four. You can never make just one friend, because soon you know all of their friends, and everyone's coming over for dinner.
Maybe it would be nice with just three - just Socrates and Ben and me. But at least I know now that I'm never alone. I'm never just one. I never ever want to be just one again.
There used to be three of us, before things got bad. My mother, and my father, and me. Things felt safe with three. Things felt good.
Then there were two, and really two meant one because my mother was in bed all day and we weren't a family the way we had been. You need three, really, to make two. And one could have been none, because I was hardly even me. How can you be yourself when you're at work all day, or asleep, and asleep at work and practically working when you're asleep?
And then I met Socrates. Which might have been three. And Ben might have been four. Except my mother wasn't part of that at all, and it's not as if Ben and Socrates stop at three or even four. You can never make just one friend, because soon you know all of their friends, and everyone's coming over for dinner.
Maybe it would be nice with just three - just Socrates and Ben and me. But at least I know now that I'm never alone. I'm never just one. I never ever want to be just one again.