THE STEP

It was such an ordinary day. Boring, long and not interesting at all. A day like any other in my life. I was in a hurry and didn’t notice the faces in the crowd. Why actually. We meet so many people in our lives without realizing it. So many faces that become familiar over time, yet are complete strangers to us. Day after day, weeks and years. Over and over again. The same story.
Good morning and goodbye.
Thoughtful and deeply immersed in myself, a strange smell caught my attention. At first, it just tickled around my nose, and then it hit me hard. It snapped me out of my thoughts and made me perceive the world around me. Reluctantly enough, I lifted my head and that’s when I saw her. She was standing just a step away from me. Just one single step, so close. Yet there was a distance between us. The distance of everyday life. There was just a shy smile on her face. A thousand questions began to swirl in my mind, and I didn’t know the answer to any of them. All my eyes could do was to stare intently at a single target. On her. My world stopped. Am I still breathing? One step, just one, and I’ll pass her. One step away from her. Why am I shaking? Where is my heart? I hear it beating in alarm. Oh, I know, it’s in my throat. My otherwise sharp brain groped in the dark for options. How long does it take to take a single step?
I passed her on the sidewalk and understood, what she meant to me. At that moment, we were just one step short. One single step. Each of us creates our own universe. We are the creators of our own destinies. With every decision we make, we change the course of our lives. And this was just one of those other strange coincidences.

Fear took over me. But from what? What would I lose if I took that step? She made it. My heart was beating furiously. We passed each other like two complete strangers, yet we stared into each other’s eyes. There was a strange calm inside me. It was as if the whole world stopped, just for the two of us, for this moment. It felt like an eternity, a chance to flip the switch and change the course of my own destiny. And yet I couldn’t make that step. Not at that moment. I watched him disappear around the corner. I wanted to call out to her, do not rush yet, so take your time, wait and we’ll stop time. But I couldn’t utter a single word. The distance in our hearts deepened with every her next step. And so I continued to stand there silently, looking at her. Slowly the crowd began to absorb her, and in a few more steps, all that was left of her was her back in the distance, and with every other step, got further away. Step by step, she disappeared just as she appeared in my life. After another small moment, only a shadow of her remained. I continued to stand on the sidewalk. I just watched an otherwise ordinary day pass into oblivion.

(26.1.2025)