Things You Left Behind

Cary’s eyes followed the sun as it rose, watching intently from his balcony, while the wind swirled around the leaves of the trees below and then brushed past playfully across his face.  Today was going to be a long day; he was moving to Barcelona for two years as senior current affairs journalist for BBC. 

He started counting the number of times he has moved in his life; and very quickly he lost count.  He laughed to himself and thought, “I had better start keeping a record of all my moves if I want to remember where the heck I have been at the end of my life.”

He went inside and sat on his sofa, next to several large open boxes filled with things he wasn’t taking with him.  He ceremonially shuffled through them, bemused by the number of things he had around the apartment that had absolutely no purpose to him.

He leaned back, looked over to the mirror by the wall, and saw his slumped self on the sofa staring back at him.  Every time he moved, he gained some new insight.  This time he realized that he had kept things around that may have once been, or so he thought, a meaningful part of his life, but have now become objects he no longer needed.  That moving on sometimes meant leaving the good and the beautiful, but the needless behind.  And he figured that he should do some moving in his mind.  Being in relationships with beautiful people he didn’t love, the memory of a lover’s kiss, the sound of his first love’s snores...

There was a knock on the door; it was Cary’s dad.  Cary opened the door and hugged him.

“All set, son?”  Cary’s dad asked with a wide smile.

“All set!”  Cary replied.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Cary gave one last hard look around the apartment; suddenly a huge wave of sadness overcame him.   Wishing not to bear the moment any longer, he hastily closed the door behind him, for the final time.

20TH

Dearest Wei Wen,

How have you been, my friend? It has been a while since we corresponded. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I must tell you how happy and surprised this past Sunday, having read in a local newspaper that members within the Chinese Communist Party have signed a letter voicing their desire for political change, for a democratic political system. I am reminded of how far we have come, Wei Wen. We, as a people, who have been oppressed for thousands of years. Millions before us have died for their dream of a life of basic human dignity. Our collective courage and spirit tells me that this dream must inevitably be met. When will freedom be achieved? Perhaps in ten years, perhaps in fifty. But we are closer to freedom every day. I admire you for never giving up, for planting seeds of freedom every day, everywhere you go, in our motherland.

This shall be the last letter I am writing to you. I shall never forget the history that we shared during the protests, and though the candle of freedom will forever burn inside me; my past duties are nearly done and I must now move on and leave the terrors of my past for the benefit of my family and my newborn child.

I hope someday you will visit my family and me in London. And when we meet, I hope we can all sing songs of true peace and freedom.

Sincerely,

Freddie Lee