I slowly opened the front door, and slid down to sit behind the protective secondary metal door. I sat there for several moments in my sadness, not feeling anything; just being alive.

I watched as the wind frivolously played with the flowers in my front garden beds. I can never figure out how those thin sharp-green stalks are strong enough to hold up anything, let alone a huge gaudy nest of petals and pollen.

I watched as three men walked out of the home across the street, trailed by a young boy imitating his chosen idol, and sat down around a barbecue. They chatted lightly, pulling laughter from no where and sending it rising up into the air. The child smiled as he stood to help check on the grilling meat, and then ran off into the house.

I tried to smile and share in their comfort -- but I couldn’t. I stood up and walked closer to the iron door and touched it gently, letting my fingers brush against its roughness. The cold door repelled my needy fingers and shoved me back against the wall. I stood there dazed for several seconds as the coldness of my reality sunk in even deeper. Falling to my knees I began to cry softy, the happiness of the world around me forgotten. The cool wind tried to flirt with my lose hair, but its pull wasn’t enough -- I was too protected by the house.

After a moment I looked up, startled. Where did it come from, that noise which I know so well? I looked up and scanned the rooftops, and listened carefully. There it was again, the soft cooing of my morning dove. I looked and found her sitting on the roof adjacent to the house where the barbecue was. I thought briskly of the doves and their innocent joy, and for a moment I felt calm. My ears tuned into the soft mournful call of the dove for several long moments until the bird fell silent again.

I took one last depressed look into the free world around me, and sat on the step of the inner doorway that I call home. I do not know how long I sat there, for I was in and out of mental awareness -- but to me it seemed forever. By the time I looked up from my lonely thoughts I saw that the shadows had lengthened and darkened. The wind was no longer yearning and refreshing, but dark and crisp. The Morning glories had begun their nightly ritual of closing their glorious petals and hiding their beauty form the moons face.

The light was on in the front room of the people across the street and I could hear them talking jovially with one another. The sky had grown weary and its shoulders sagged with the weight of the first stars appearing along the horizon. I had missed my chance to be free -- the night was my key being taken from the lock that I held in my hands. I watched slowly as the key stood still, outlined by stars in the heavens above.

Sadness overwhelmed me as I looked up in-between the iron bars of the screen door and screamed internally at my plight. When will I get to go out and explore beyond the safety of this place? When will the key be mine, and never taken from me again? Indignation burned deeply within my chest, and I let my air explode out in one violent gust. I took a few deep breaths and blinked rapidly trying to bring my vision back into focus. Slowly I stood and walked back inside the darkened house, shutting the door behind me.



Random quote of today:
Love isn't what makes the world go round, it's what makes it worthwhile.

Information:
This story above is both fact and fiction. It is up to you to detect the fact from the fiction. What is life without love anyways?

random strength song:
Let Freedom ring
Let the white dove sing
Let the whole world know that today
Is a Day of reckoning
Let the weak be strong
Let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away
Let the guilty pay
It's Independence Day