›¤‹ dreams and constellations ›¤‹

That summer was filled with nights exploring dreams, building hopes, fighting fears. Sneaking out at midnight, they met down by the creek and discussed everything that was important to fourteen-year-olds. Sometimes lying side by side under the open sky, trying to name the constellations… sometimes sitting against the trunk of the biggest tree reading a book together in the light of a camping lantern… once even skinny dipping when the creek was so full it almost flooded its banks. They could talk about things they’d only thought to themselves until then. It was probably easier for both of them, knowing that he was leaving the end of July.

After he’d taken the train back to Chicago, she would walk by his grandparents’ house sometimes and wonder who he was talking to now… if he ever thought of her…

On a visit home to her parent’s ten years later, when she had achieved some of the very dreams they had discussed that summer, she learned he had been killed by a drunk driver. She tried to find a familiar spot but the creek bed was long since dry, the wooden footbridge was falling apart, the entire area was covered in undergrowth. On the walk back she passed his grandparents’ old house. It had recently been renovated leaving nothing familiar there either.

The sadness was overwhelming until she realized that he had always been with her and would be for the rest of her life. If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have had the courage to reach for the things she wanted in life. Every success she attained was due in part to him…. she would be sure to add a few of his dreams to her own.

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“dreams and constellations” was the final story i wrote at PHOTOGRAPHprose. i am saddened that the site no longer exists and also that i only retained copies of the first and the last of the five pieces i submitted there. all of them, whether prose or poetry, were inspired by photographs which had also been submitted to the site. i have tried to come as close as possible to the feeling of the original image with the painting above. though this story was written in June of 2012, this is the first time it has been posted to this site.

“Dream a little dream of me” The Mamas and The Papas