The End

What a gorgeous picture that invites so much imagination! I'm judging this week, so my participation in the Flash! Friday contest is completely ineligible, but I couldn't resist at least posting an attempt at a story.

Story element to include: "A Fleeting Moment." Here's my attempt:

The End

You see the way it should have been.

The breath-taking portrait of happily-ever-after

Shatters painfully beneath the black-and-white photograph of what-is-now.

You are my soulmate, you should have said. You are the other half of me.

But the words hang empty, bereft of breath,

Deflated before they are even uttered.

A thousand reasons teeter on the edge of the silence,

Crowding in, pressing my thoughts into a whirl

Of panicked need.

It takes only a moment,

One second of shrinking courage,

One fleeting gasp of meeting-eyes,

And it is over.

All the excuses you could offer her,

She can foil with the other side.

For all your beginnings,

She can weave the ends.

The story is already written.

There is nothing left to do.

You should have had the courage to tell her then.

But you didn't.

You should have begged.

But you didn't.

You should have done anything but what you did.

Instead, you stare at her as she slowly shakes her head.

When she turns from you,

You rotate the other way,

Two backs, facing each other,

Two directions, opposite sides of the same picture.

Just . . .

Mirrored reflections in the rain.