The Worst Day Of My Life (1946 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 2 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by DrinkDDT (View user info) at 2004-10-06 17:44:55 EDT
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The light on Duncan Street began to fade as the sun made its daily, gradual retreat into the horizon. A row of tall trees quietly stood guard on either side of the road. All week their leaves had been lazily drifting to the ground, one by one, until finally the sidewalks were blanketed by the brown, crispy cadavers. It was cold outside.
From the east a man approached. He was walking quickly, furiously, but he had nowhere to be. His hands were thrust deep into his pockets, his head and eyes cast downward. If failure had a scent he would have reeked. Failure has no scent though so only he knew. He felt cold, haggard, beaten. And he was all those things.
The trees with no leaves watched cautiously as the man trudged by, but he took no notice. He only heard the relentless crunch crunch crunch of dead leaves under his footsteps, the only evidence that he was actually getting somewhere.
His life was going nowhere.
Of course things had been better before. Before the phone call. Before he heard her voice on the other end. Barely whispering, choking back tears, she spoke the words he'd never wanted to hear. But he had heard them. There's no mistaking that he heard them and now he was walking. He walked every night now.
Today was the first real cold day of the year and there were dead leaves all around him and death was nothing new to him and still he walked. Crunch crunch crunch and he walked and he had nowhere to be. He was finally losing his mind. He was finally at the bottom of the barrel. Finally, maybe, it was over.
This is the worst day of my life, he thought.
And it was. Just like the day before was and just like the next day would be. He was an ordinary man, and ordinary men hold on to hope until the bitter end. Some people would say that things can't get any worse. Some people would say once you've hit rock bottom, there's nowhere to go but up. And an ordinary man would believe it.
But the fallen leaves he left behind on Duncan Street, they knew better.
User Reviews
Submitted by RoadSong (user info) at 2009-04-28 23:24:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"If failure had a scent he would have reeked."
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The illustration goes well with this piece.
Submitted by youarsoghey (user info) at 2005-01-16 12:07:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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