Her Box Of Memories

Time does not wait for us. We have to grab what memories we can, as those moments flutter by, and hold them close, keep them safe. Even then, a precious moment is hard to hold onto without something tangible we can grasp and feel the connection that flows from then until now. So many of our moments are lost on the breezes that flutter through our times, taking our days out through the open windows of our lives and scattering them far out of our reach.

So she held the moment in the palm of her open hand, watching it grow into something that she would take on with her down all the roads of the rest of her life. She knew this would be one of those moments she would keep as a memory; locked away in her box of memories that she kept in a safe place deep in the heart of her mind.

Whenever time came dripping slow she took down her box of memories to hold it in her hands, feeling the weight of a life in something solid. She was so careful with her box of memories, not wanting to waste its powers on ordinary day-to-day reminiscence. It was a powerful thing, which could take her back to those other times, times when it seemed she would have nothing but memories heaping down on her for every day of her life.

Now, though, her days were mostly empty. The world that once turned around her now turned around other people, other places. These days she looked out towards a world that lay far beyond her window. A window that looked out only on a world that has left her behind, alone with her box of memories.

She took care of those memories, taking them out only when she was alone, sitting in her favourite chair with the sunlight pouring in over her, turning the whole room golden. She would reach up to the highest shelf of her memories and take down that box, placing it carefully in her lap as she gently took out each single moment, seeing it sparkle and glow in the warm sunlight as though it was happening now, still as fresh as the day she’d packed it away.

She would take each memory in her hands, turning it so that it caught fire from the sunlight, burning deep into her mind. She would close her eyes and sit back in her special chair, letting the warmth of the sun and her golden memory fill her back up with the life she had left behind so long ago.