A piece of hope?

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Jake sat there contemplating what would happen next. He wasn't sure of anything.

Things will get better in the end. Weeping may last for the night but Joy cometh in the morning.

But does it really come? Or was it just a lie he had been telling himself to cope with the constant pain he was always feeling. He was starting to get numb from the pain.

"When will my morning come? Hasn't my night lasted long enough?"

the thoughts kept running around his head. Eating him up from the inside. He couldn't take it anymore. Giving up had crossed his mind several times, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He wasn't thought to be a quitter. Moreover, quitting would hurt a lot of people and he didn't want to do that to those who he cared for. But at times he really did consider it an option. That day was one of those days.

Life had never been easy for him. His mother died in the delivery room when he was born. He wasn't sure why, but his father treated him very badly and maltreated him, then he abandoned him at a mall when he was around four years old. He couldn't comprehend it at the time, but he'd eventually come to the conclusion his father couldn't bear to look at him anymore, as he was a constant reminder of his dead wife, and he hated him for it.

When he was found by the security at the mall, he didn't say anything. He just stood there staring at them as they asked questions upon questions. Even if he'd spoken to them he wouldn't have been able to say anything of help to them. He didn't know where his father was, his address, his phone number, he didn't know anything. At that point the only thing he could remember was his name, and that was the only thing he held onto. Like a self defense mechanism he unconsciously chose to forget everything.

He found himself in foster care for about 3-4 more years before finally getting adopted. His foster family were the nicest people he'd ever met, Mr and Mrs Goldberg. The time he spent with them were the best days of his life. Everything was going so smoothly, until one day Mrs Goldberg fainted unexpectedly. She was rushed to the hospital and it was discovered that she had a very serious case of Alzheimers.

From then onwards things became different he spent a lart part of his early teenage years taking care of her until she finally died. He cried so hard, and he blamed himself. He believed he was cursed never to have a mother, and that by coming into their lives his curse slowly took effect.

Mr Goldberg never changed in his nice behavior towards him, and till today, now that Jake has become independent he still goes to check in on his Dad. The only dad he ever knew, and one of the only lights left in Jake's rather dimly lit life.

Adulthood hadn't been easy for Jake as well, somehow he found himself doing a job he hated, living in a small cubicle - not even worthy to be called an apartment, next to the most obnoxious of neighbors. He was always grumpy and sleep deprived because his neighbors who seemed to have nothing to do would throw midnight parties.

That day, after another horrible night of little sleep, on his way to work he got mugged. The little money he had on him was gone. He sat on his office desk thinking about what would happen next. He'd probably need to borrow from a co-worker just to get by for a few days before his salary comes in.

He opened his drawer to pick out a pen, and in it he saw a folded piece of paper that wasn't there before. He picked it up, and slowly unfolded it to see what was in it. Written in the most beautiful handwriting were the words

A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but its persistence. Keep flowing.

He looked up and around as if trying to see if whoever planted the paper was looking to see his reaction. Then before he knew it he began to chuckle, and then laugh out loudly. Everyone in the office looked at him in shock, they'd never seen him laugh all through his stay in that office.

~THANKS FOR READING~

_{Cover image by Olga Thelavart from Unsplash}