Endless displays of memories frozen in time decorated empty spaces along the walls. Children laughed and chased each other from a garden of green toward a room of deep blue. Celebrations lightened up the darkest corners of the hallways, sending the light dancing down toward the stairs. The haunting gaze of a young girl took hold of all those that happened to walk by, and it was her eyes now that focused on me.
Once upon a time, this young girl was me, and forever will she be frozen in her golden frame. Her eyes were alive and haunting. Her smile was gentle and enchanting. If a glimmer of doubt could cross her face, she would be the one wondering, “Who is this stranger standing before me?”
The cold touch of glass beneath my hand reminded me of how naive I was back then. This thin panel between us was the only wall between past and now. The golden frame was reflecting how alive I felt then, but was I alive now? So much had happened, and she would never know.
I tried to avoid her. I would walk down the hallways in this house just so not to be caught in her gaze. I had to keep my thoughts occupied when I did walk this way, but today, I slipped. And she caught me.
If given the chance, I would turn back time. I would rush to her side and tell her of all that would happen. I would warn her and beg her to listen to my warnings. I would gladly fade away into a what if, if she could have a life not like this, but time is cruel. And it could never be taken back.
She was a vision of innocence, and it wasn’t that I hated her or despised her. I was just angry at all the fools that poured into my life. I was bitter at all those wrong choices that led me down jagged roads. I regretted the hearts that I shattered and so carelessly giving my own into the hands that promised to break it apart. She knew none of this, and maybe it was better, if it stayed that way.
If she could see through this plate of glass, she would see a woman now standing before her. There would be something familiar about her face. Her eyes would still be haunting, but their light may have dimmed a bit.
A shadow fell over her gaze, and I realized that it was my own reflection. My eyes melted into hers. My smile touched her lips. Something was missing. What was missing?
Strength. I had grown stronger since that moment of time. I used to break. I was shy. Now, I’m stone, and my presence is felt. She would know nothing of this because those trials of my life never happened to her.
I am the stranger. I am what she would become. I am everything lying in wait, her future, and she was the portrait forever to be hung on my wall.
