Once Upon a Time | An English Short Story
Once Upon a Time
Written by ShaPour KhodaParast
Not so far away, nor so near, a time in-between, therefore it was so far away and so near, mixed with your pleasant imagination.
Then once upon a time, and it was me, noticing a lonely man in front of a coffee shop when I was there for a rest every evening, he was sitting lonely on a bench with a banner made of paper that read: “I am lonely.”
It was interesting for me to see such a banner with this short sentence on it. It could vividly show how much suffering he was dealing with.
And I was thinking about his loneliness; he was yelling out due to loneliness but most of us are lonely and have not enough bravery to let it out.
My mind was going up and down concerning his situation and the word Lonely. What was the exact meaning of lonely? It means that I need someone to be with me or something deeper than these simple things.
During days and weeks, when I was seeing him with his paper banner, it drove me to think deeply on it, yet I could not find the right meaning of lonely.
One day when I was passing across the back street of the coffee shop, I saw a woman sitting on a bench with the same motto on her paper banner.
I was wondering if they could meet each other, it would be a big goal for both of them. So, they would get rid of loneliness. Ah! That’s a good idea!
Therefore, I decided to introduce them to each other so that everything would go in the right.
And I did so.
I was happy to see a pair of humans getting rid of loneliness; and in my thoughts, I was a hero to make it happen and save them.
I didn’t see them for a while.
Life was going on, without knowing how it was going on through the seconds, and we were living, without knowing what exactly the meaning of life was.
After a while, I saw both of them on the bench, in front of the coffee shop windows.
They were sitting with a bit of distance from each other.
And there was a piece of paper, written by them, which read: “We are lonely.”
The time that revealed itself to us was coming.
The exact meaning of lonely was going to appear bright to me and I was learning something sore and bitter.
I did not feel like a hero. Instead, I was feeling like a kid who was learning a secret.
Loneliness is not a thing that we usually think that it is. Loneliness is like a number, but which number is it? It depends on you and your worthiness. If it were zero, then zero + zero comes to zero.
To find out your abilities and worthiness, you need to improve yourself. If you can make yourself happy on your own, then you can make others happy, too; and if you could not do it right, then how can you bring your happiness and share it with your partner or others around you?
Everyone has to use a private yard for oneself, somewhere for being with oneself, to experience how to be alone and learn many things when there is no one else nearby, reading books, writing down one’s ideas, listening to music, and most importantly, thinking. Thinking about everything he would like, growing his thoughts by regularly thinking of ideas about his desires; surely it can help everyone for the future life, so after a while, he feels he’s got power much more than before and when he comes back to the real world, he’s got many ideas for sharing; and many other things that perhaps others haven’t reached for. Not only can this be useful for himself, but also it can change other people’s loneliness with powerful ideas generated in the private yard.
So we can use our braveness for many other important things instead of using it for writing on a piece of a paper banner “I am lonely “.
Now just imagine if two people with this model reached each other, what would happen? I think the best word for this part is “Miracle”. Yeah, miracle is not the thing we are waiting for years and years.
Just imagine how nicely the two people could influence each other!
And if you would add love to this miracle, what do you think about it, what would be happening…
I believe this is true love with a lot of different colors. I believe if you like to know what time God smiles at you, that’s it, that’s where you are like those two sample people.
I was thinking a lot and I am still thinking a lot and many other parts of loneliness are coming to reveal themselves more and more…
So as I said first, not so far away, nor so near, a time in-between, therefore it was so far away and so near, mixed with your pleasant imagination. Once upon a time…
This short story is dedicated to someone who changed my life and saved me with pleasant colors of her love.