Member-only story
He Wants The Paradise He Sells
A short story about a dream unfortunately come true.
He had to sell the place, but no one wanted it.
Truth be told, he wanted it, still. He wanted it so badly. It was all exactly as he had dreamed.
He had come to this island 20 years ago. He fell in love with the way the women made clothes and searched for oysters. He fell in love with how the men fished together and straddled two boats at the same time. He fell in love with the excessive amounts of soccer fields and the way the cable never worked.
His girlfriend at the time didn’t mind the island, but she wasn’t in love. She didn’t have a vision. And she had broken her ankle in college. It was never quite the same. When they went up hills, her knee would start to hurt. She said the ankle wasn’t as flexible, and it put more pressure on the knee.
He thought this was kind of a big excuse to prevent him from living his dreams. He wanted to have a hostel on top of a hill, with a spectacular view and a bar and maybe a deck.
He did it. He bought a piece of land. The girlfriend left. She couldn’t climb up the hill. He would laugh as she paused, over and over, like an old lady. What, like he was supposed to pause his dreams for her?
