Happy Halloween, everyone!
Unrelated to the festivities, I have finished a story three years in the making. Perhaps in a twist of fate, I wrote the first part of this story in 2006, yet left the years-later segment until yesterday, when I uncovered the tale and realized that it was time to reunite my heroes.
Without further ado: “Love Isn’t a Promise”
As always, I’m afraid that it is necessary to resize your browser to make this readily readable. I’ll try to make a browser-friendly version later.
Details after the cut.
Genre: Romance
Information: I think there were two main sources of inspiration for this story, the first being a short story I had read as a kid where there are two friends (men) who promise to meet again in 20 years, with the twist being that when they reunite, one has become a police inspector and the other, a gangster boss. Thinking in my usual way, I reimagined what would happen if instead I recast this as a romantic scenario. I’ve always been enamored by the possibilities of people’s beliefs.
Now, you might say that this is utterly unrealistic garbage. But to quote one of my favorite web comments of all time, “Just because it hasn’t happened to you, doesn’t mean it’s unrealistic.” For the people reading this story, I have to say that I believe that every bit of this story could happen, aside from possible flaws in the weather patterns. I firmly stand by human desire and belief, not fate or destiny, as the driving force which gives promises their meaning. My own life has had enough episodes which were like this in their own right that I can’t help but say that this is reality to me.
The other influence was, perhaps obviously enough, “Turn Left, Turn Right,” a ridiculously sappy romantic comedy in which two people live “parallel” lives, meant clearly for each other but never able to intersect until the very end. Even though the main use I made of this was in the way I did the storytelling, I was only able to write the climax when I listened to “Yu Jian,” a gorgeous, simple theme song from this movie.
As a story, I realize that this isn’t terse, focused prose as you might want it to be. But for me, relishing in the tangents and details about the scene and thoughts of the characters is as important as the main plot and message that I’m trying to convey. It is through the environment and the small gestures that I am able to bring out the aspirations and loves of these characters who have no names and no past. Even though they remain anonymous to the very end, perhaps even to each other, I have to come to love them perhaps more than any pair of characters before, so I hope that maybe you will too!
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