day 5

When the two meet, it's always from a distance.

Helen sees a boy from afar. His hair, tied to a nest, with split ends and curly frills. His eyes, perpetually small but surveying far and wide. His bespectacled face, though, suggests a lonely existence but one capable of presenting himself in a light that speaks little of him but more of his performance as a gentleman.

Helen is sad. Departed from her home, she is struck by the gripping sense of multiple possibilities in the alien environment:

a. Should she walk away?
b. Should she approach the boy?
c. Should she just pretend to not notice?
d. Should she just stand and await his approach?
e. Do nothing.

As it is, in the split seconds of decision-making, the boy does not move as well. Helen does not move. She realises, for the first time, that she is powerless in such stagnant moments. A moment when nothing happens. No one moves. No one speaks to her in an assertive manner. No one to tell her who he is and what is going to do to her. She can only stand. Speechless. Unable to act. Well, she is acting. Acting in a stationary way.

Is he staring at her, scrutinising every detail and fragment of her imagination? Is he analysing her, writing a story in his brain? Or is he imagining all the possible ways to approach her? Or has he decided that he would ignore her. Leave her as it is, stuck in her pathetic moment of loneliness, and content to leave her drowning.

They both did nothing. And that was it.