Short Story: It Was In You All Along

Based on a true story…kinda.

This story is about two beautiful people, Floyd and Simone.

One day, Floyd was sitting by himself, discouraged and feeling a sense of defeat with how his life was going. He had been feeling it for some time, but today, he had reached his all-time low. Then out of nowhere, a beautiful woman comes up to him and sits right next to him as if she was his long-time friend.

“Hey! I know you don’t know me, but I couldn’t help but notice that you looked very troubled. Want to talk about it to a stranger? It can’t hurt. After all, I have nobody to go and tell your story to. My name is Simone,” she says as she reaches out her hand to shake his. Floyd was reluctant to tell his story to a stranger, but part of him felt like he could trust her because she gave off a familiar vibe as if they’d met before.

“Do I know you from somewhere? You seem very familiar,” as he reluctantly reached out to shake Simone’s hand. “Ehh, not quite, but I’m sure we’ve crossed paths a few times before. Now, what’s going on?” Simone looks Floyd in the eyes and smiles. “You are free to tell me. I won’t judge you, and I will create space for you to speak your peace.” After hearing that, Floyd knew that he could talk to Simone. After taking a deep breath, Floyd started to “speak his peace” to Simone:

“I don’t know where my life is going. Sometimes I feel like I have it all together; other times, I feel like I’m crumbling into a million pieces. I just ended a relationship that most people thought was perfect, but it wasn’t. I struggled to maintain my identity in that relationship, and now that it’s over, I have to myself again. On top of that, my bills seem to have no end, and my living situation isn’t the best. I apologize for dumping all of this on you, but I’m usually the one that listens to everyone else, and nobody ever takes the time to hear my heart and mind as I do for them. I know it’s a lot to digest at once, but this is why I’m so down — because there are so many pieces moving simultaneously.”

“There’s no need to apologize love,” Simone says with a smile, “I wanted to create space for you to speak your peace.” The fact that someone was taking the time to listen to Floyd share his heart was very new to him, but he was so grateful for this experience. “Are you busy right now? If not, I want to take you somewhere, to my secret place I go when I need to let go,” Simone says as she gets up. Floyd stands up and starts walking with Simone, hoping this place will help him too. “We’re not far, and I promise it will be worth it.”

Simone and Floyd walk for about 15 minutes until they reach this field that looks very bare. “This is your secret space?” Floyd asks with confusion, “it looks like an abandoned park.” Simone smiles and grabs Floyd’s hand, “not exactly here, but we’re close. This might sound like a strange request, but I need you to trust me, the not-so-strange stranger.” Floyd decides to trust where Simone is taking him, although he is not sure what can come of being in an abandoned park.

“We just need to go through these woods to get to the other side,” Simone says as she grabs Floyd’s hand tighter because she feels him trying to resist. “Ummm, if you are trying to kidnap me for ransom, you won’t get anything. I don’t know what’s happening Simone, and you’re making it hard for me to trust you.” Floyd honestly cannot see what’s about to happen, but Simone still looks very confident and keeps walking forward holding Floy’d hand. “We’re almost there.”

They get to a clearing in the woods and see the river staring back at them with the sun’s shine. “We’re here now,” Simone says as she looks over at Floyd, whose eyes are getting bigger as he stares at the water. “I brought you here because I need you to let go of all that is bothering you.” Simone takes out paper and pens from her book bag to hand them to Floyd. Reluctantly, Floyd grabs them and waits for Simone to tell him what to do.

“I want you to take all the time you need to do a brain dump. Write down all that is on your heart and mind. Do not hold back or keep anything from yourself. I want you to be free to express yourself without limitations. This is not for me to read or anyone else to judge — this is for you to be truthful with yourself about all that’s on your heart and mind. When you’re done, let me know, and I will tell you what to do next. In the meantime, I will sit here watching the water.”

Floyd sat down and started to write. As he wrote, he would cry every so often, and Simone would wipe his tears and tell him to keep writing. Page after page, covered with the things on Floyd’s heart and mind. Simone did not rush him because she wanted him to ensure he was entirely free of what was burdening him.

“I’m finished,” Floyd says as he wipes another tear from his eyes. Simone smile and hugs him. “I’m so proud of you. Now, I want you to ball it up and say these words: ‘I release what no longer serves me. I will no longer allow it to take up space in my mind and heart.’ After you do that, I want you to throw it into the river.” It took Floyd a while to gain the strength to say those words, but he finally threw the balled-up papers into the river. “What do we do next, Simone?”

“We watch the river take it away until we can no longer see it. Let that symbolically represent your troubles and worries being washed away.” The two watched for some time until they could no longer see the balled-up papers. Floyd turns to Simone with a smile of relief and says, “thank you.” Their embrace seemed to last forever, and it could be felt that they both needed it.

“How did you know this would help me,” Floyd asks as their hug finally ends. Simone turns away slightly with a smirk on her face. “I’ve seen you go through all of it. When you were hurt, doubted yourself, and cried in the middle of the night the other day because I am your heart. That’s why I feel familiar to you.” Although puzzled by the statement, Floyd seems to know deep down that what Simone said was true. All he could say to her was, “wow…thank you.”

“I had to appear this way to you because you stopped checking in with me. You started not to trust yourself and your decisions, so I chose to appear physically to you so that you would listen to the reason within yourself. Yes, we’ve gone through a lot, but never forget to check in with your heart and mind. We are you, and we will always be you. I have to go back now, but whenever you doubt yourself again, know that the answers you seek are inside you because God placed them there. It was in you all along.”

Right after Simone finished that last sentence, she decomposed to light matter and went back inside Floyd’s chest space. He placed his hands over his heart and said thank you to Simone as he stared back into the eyes of the river looking back at him. “It was in me all along.”