Touch

Written by Jacob Ibrag

Time stood still as soon as she appeared out of thin

 air. Dropping his favorite flavored ice cream to the ground,

the boy was struck with paralysis. Looking over her shoulder, she

 finally turned around to address him. As she began to walk, a bolt of

lightening would follow after each of her steps. He had just celebrated

his ninth birthday and yet he had discovered the true embodiment of a

word older people pretended to understand almost immediately; love.

 Fighting to compose himself, he tried to say anything so she wouldn’t

leave. Yet before he could make a noise, the brown eyed girl touched his

face and disappeared instantly. Stealing the boys future, his next twenty

years were almost a blur. When his eyes were closed, all he saw was her.

Depression would seep into his soul as he grew older. Forever obsessed

 with the vanishing girls touch, it was the last thing he pictured when his

heart had given up. Waking up into another place, he realized that he

wasn’t the old man from yesterday. He was a kid again with a familiar

 touch upon his skin. It was her, the girl that had disappeared. Before

he could make a sound, she handed him his favorite flavored ice

cream and whispered, ‘I guess we’re finally even now.’

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Photographer Unknown