He could not say when she had first arrived. Time had lost its meaning long ago. There was no need to count down the seconds when one’s demise was never a worry.
Something was strange about her. She was stubborn and imperfect, still a human, presumably just out of spite. At one point he had been just like her, born a cacophony of flesh and bone strung together by nature’s careless hand. Like all others, he had chosen to be born again, this time with a mechanical heart and electric blood, breathing in perfect rhythms and free from the blemishes of skin and soul. Yet she was unlike the others. A fool was what she was, to turn down the opportunity to be eternal.
It was when she left that he noticed that time, in all of its irrelevance, had ticked slower when she was there. Perhaps it was the way she walked, the way she stood and stared at him with that expression of disgust and pity. Perhaps it was the way she spoke so crudely, saying the same words he could, but yet, they meant something different when she said them. Something so intrinsic was buried in each syllable, as if she was speaking for herself and not to be heard.
He could not say how long it had been since she left. Seconds, hours, years, it made no difference to him, but she was fleeting. That was why she was beautiful, he suspected. It is only the temporary who wish for it all, and it is only the temporary who ever get close to having it. When she spoke he could hear that desire for more inside of her, but despite all her wants and flaws, the only thing she refused was perfection.
He could not help but muse about how long it would be until she faded. He should not have cared, but he wished to see her again. It was a cruel bout of irony, the perfect wanting the flawed, but she had answers no other could provide. It was a question he had never thought to ask, but now, knowing only she could answer, he had no choice but to wonder.
To what purpose was each breath if you know there will never be a last?
Josh Hicks is a member of the class of 2025 at University Park and is majoring in astronomy and astrophysics. In his free time he enjoys staring into space, staring up at space, writing, writing about space and wasting absurd amounts of time on farming video games.