“We’ll go back sometime soon,” he said. Back to that school. That massive pile of bricks and brass, older than dirt. I pass by that school every single day since I left, and I always wanted to, but I’ve never gone back.
Sometime soon he said.
Sometime soon I could go back to that school, where I learned how to write, read, and draw. Everything about me started there. But now it’s gone.
Sometime soon never came. I can never go back, never again can I visit or plan to. I remember asking my dad, again and again, “When can we go back?” or “Can we go visit?”, and time after time I’d always get the same answer, “Yes, sometime soon.”
Yes, sometime soon, every time, and although I knew “sometime soon” would never come, I always had the smallest bit of hope lingering in the back of my mind. A false hope, caused by two words. What a detestable phrase. Sometime soon, who knew two words could have such an impact.
Sometime soon. Is it just another kind way to say “it’s not gonna happen”? And if that rickety fossil of a school remained? If it still stood, would I have ever had to hear those two wretched words? Would “sometime soon” have come? Though sometime soon will never come, I’m glad. I’m glad that I ever had that school, always in my head. Maybe later in my life, sometime soon will come. Yea, sometime soon.
~ James J.
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