Hello, Friend!

It's been a while, hasn't it. It wasn't wine we drank, contrary to the current belief you're not overly fond of wine - but drink we did.

A beautiful evening it was, one of these evenings dripping with anticipation, but peaceful and quiet nonetheless. Actually it took me quite a while to notice you, even though you had been there all the time, silently waiting for me to realize. But as it alway is with good friends, the moment I saw you it was just as if we'd never been apart. Hello, Friend!

You took my hand and held it for a while, while the tension became more and more obvious, but just when I was about to resign, thinking that, whatever had been between us had sprung out of my delirious mind, you looked at me and with a smile you asked: Are you sure? You know the price.

And then i remembered. We had been together so many times, and every time you'd ask the same question: are you sure? you know the prize. I nodded my head, my heart aching, yet overflowing with joy, that joy, the incomparable, incomprehendable joy only you could make me feel. Your eyes turned dark, fear mingled with the joy, but yes: i knew the Price, i had paid it many times, sadly, willingly, and not once i regretted it, even though it had left me broke in many ways more than once.

You, too, nodded your head. Then come. I'll show you the way. And you did. And it began. To the darkest corners of my souls, through the labyrinth of my mind, the decaying heaviness of my fast aging body. I remember that darkness, colder than the mere absence of warmth could ever be, I remember the Sun, burning, burning...

And I failed. I watched myself falling, and I failed. It ripped me apart. I was not strong enough: I failed. There were explanations, of course, even excuses. But some things can't be carried alone, voices whispered, argued, screamed, they started pulling me apart, and a wish arose in my loneliness and was bluntly denied. My brain shattered, my heart broke, my body drew me deeper, and deeper. I knew you were there, watching me silently, patiently, but I couldn't bear to look at you, so I closed my eyes and you were

gone.

More I do not remember. For that was it: to forget: what I'd seen, to forget what I'd felt, to forget everything, but one thing I did not forget: that I'd failed. I'd averted my gaze, and I failed. Maybe that was the reason: That I hadn't allowed you to take what was rightfully yours.

But I know: I will bear with that pain. I will agree each and every time. I will take your hand and give you mine, each and every time we meet, until you stop asking.

I know it's not you who's asking. I know you can't say but the words I put in your mind. I even know there is no such thing as you. Mirror Mirror. God in a Mirror. Nonetheless: Hello, Friend! And never goodbye.

I know this has been written more than once. I will not win a prize for outstanding originality for this, I know. It's commonplace, it's ordinary. But some things have to be said, just so they're said. They have to be said by everyone, once and again. Have you?