Reflections on Scheveningen

I haven’t come to the sea in a while. Not since the last time we were here together. How long ago was it? 4, 5 years or more perhaps? I can’t really remember.

Or maybe I just don’t want to.

But the sound of the waves crashing onto the rocks only serves to remind me.
This beach that seems to stretch on forever. Forever seemed so natural back then didn’t it? As though we would always be together. Now it seems so far away. Unreachable. This eternal distance is a throbbing pain, hurting with every step.
Two towers on opposite banks, always apart. And I wonder what you, the you on the other side of the world, are doing, thinking, feeling right now.

We don’t know anything about each other anymore. That would have been unimaginable back then, wouldn’t it? We did everything together...

...Walking as far as we possibly could into the sea, standing side by side, facing the waves and the wind…

…laughing at how silly we were…
…Swimming against the waves, despite the odds… …trying again and again…Have you ever run the hardest you possibly could, yet fall short?
What would you have done then?

Holding hands at 70, we couldn’t see ourselves like that in the fog anymore.

Maybe it is better to give up and walk away. That was what we chose in the end, didn’t we?Footprints in different directions. Like parallel lines. What if they were to stop and meet like this?

What if it happens at the moment where the sun sets?

Will it be the end, or will the darkness allow our masks of pride to fall off to reveal our vulnerability; allow past mistakes to be forgiven; allow us to be honest with ourselves- a new beginning?

*this is entirely fictional