Return

Twenty years ago, theirs was a family as small and close-knit as a sparrow’s nest. She had flown effortlessly through the sky of his love, like a bird without wings.

Then came a time when the demon called poverty tightened its grip around their necks. He left for a distant land in search of a better livelihood.

Her wings became useless. Her sky disappeared.

Years rolled by. His voice could no longer reach her. Even technology had not yet grown enough to understand the pain of her waiting. The steps of their home grew worn as she waited for letters that never came.

The people around her began writing their own versions of the story beneath her name.

There comes a point when even patience runs out. And even when it doesn’t, despair eventually tells you to let go.

She

In the ripening summer, he stood at her door. Her heart turned cold, as though winter had settled inside her. Her gaze lingered on his greying hair. He looked helpless, yet she wanted to ask him a thousand questions.

Questions she had kept locked away for years—questions born from the wounds to her pride. But her lips remained sealed, as though they had lost the ability to speak.

let go of everything.

She buried her love deep within her heart.

He had left for that distant land carrying countless dreams, believing it would take away their sorrows. But he was deceived by agents. While trying to escape, he was falsely accused of a crime and imprisoned.

“There wasn’t a single day when I didn’t think of you, my dear. I was terrified that I would die in that prison without hearing your voice even once, without seeing your face even one more time.”

His voice trembled.

The love she had locked away began, little by little, to melt through her tears.

Every day in that place was hell. There wasn’t a day when I didn’t wonder whether I should have stayed there with you, holding your hands, and lived my whole life beside you.

She reached for his hands.

“I looked for you everywhere. There was nowhere I didn’t search. But whom could I ask? As the days passed, I too began to wonder if what everyone was saying was true—if you had really left me.”

“I would constantly have frightening dreams that you were in danger. And in those dreams, I didn’t know how to save you.”

Their unspoken feelings poured out, one after another.

The seeds of her hatred, buried deep within the earth, were finally forgotten. The love he had left behind began to bloom once again.

Slowly, they began rebuilding their little sparrow’s nest.

The human mind is a strange thing. Hatred, even when hardened like stone, can melt away in a mere second. Everything comes down to a single thought, after all. Had her thoughts remained negative, she would have only seen him as someone who cheated, failed, and then came crawled back to her. However, a single good memory from the past is enough to melt the heart. After all, how long are we going to live anyway?

A single thought of hers shattered everything into pieces: "If I die, who would sit by my corpse for the longest time?" Without the slightest error, it was his face that appeared before her eyes. She was stunned into silence. Life is just this much. Is it this very minute? A few more days? A few many years?

"Let us hold on to these hands," her heart said.