Into The Sunset

Then what?

We expect things to follow. There will always be consequences, like the way you turned away after I said what I said and those long lonely days that followed. Each of those sad days haunted by a mere handful of words and the way we walked away from each other. All our lives since have followed from that moment and the way we walked away from each other down separate roads.

For years I was haunted by that look in her dark eyes, and the knowledge of what a mistake I had made, walking away from that life she held out to me in her open palms. Instead I chose to carry on being young and foolish like all the songs I liked to sing.

I used to sing songs of freedom, about turning away to face the world alone and what lay down that road and over the next hill. I thought it was freedom, but it was just cowardice. The cowardice of the lonesome hero who never stays around to deal with the dull consequences and the mundane of the day to day, but rides off alone into the sunset, looking for a new story to play the central role in… but only for a while.

All those stories end up the same way, with the hero alone and the woman turning away. Turning away just like you did, to hide those dark eyes and the tears that were all my fault.