Musings | Mar 30, 2024

(Note: I re-discovered an entry while going through my old phone. I was at this place called Simply Cafe reflecting on the reading experience as a whole as well as my own. While I did some tinkering, the essence of the original text remains.)

Moments at a quiet cafe with a book, a donut, and your favorite drink are something else.

Sans the outside noise, you are taken to another world. A portal opens: now, nothing stands between you and the hero from page 25. You join him on his quest to defeat a collosal, fire-breathing seven-headed beast that has been wreaking havoc for a long time, inciting fear among its inhabitants. It has also held the king's only daughter, a maiden of inexplicable beauty, captive. Upon reaching the monster's lair, your heart teems with excitement coupled with anxiety. Your eyes begin to witness the extraordinary battle. Despite the cuts and bruises, the hero finally slays the beast using the enchanted sword gifted by the skilled blacksmith from chapter 10. With the kingdom now free and the daughter safe, the king invites everyone to a banquet. Amidst the merrymaking, you reluctantly bid goodbye to your newfound friends as the portal reappears and sucks you back to your own reality...

One thing people don't always talk about is that special kind of sadness that envelopes when a tale ends. With every turn of the page, these magical beings grow on you. Like a dog you have come to cherish. With the story over, that momentary triumph is almost instantly replaced by  a feeling of wistfulness: to undo the past so you could experience everything for the first time. And yet there you are - stunned at the realization of that exact same moment not ever happening again. Slumping deeper into the cushion, you start to feel the weight of absence. How are a string of words capable of shattering a heart?

Yet you are left with a memory. A sacred one. 

As you make your way out of the cafe, you think of starting another story - like you always do.