~ The only thing we take with us is love ~
"Can you hear it?" he said, placing his child's little hand over his ailing heart. "Great men do as they feel. It's there, all the time. Listen to my heart."
As a child, Julius was unable to understand his father's dying words, but on this cold December night, a glimmer of light fell upon him when he found himself standing in a sad pool of regret. Now, such a rich man, with the world at his fingertips, Julius never listened to his heart. When it was finally time for him to enjoy life, there was nothing he could call his own. Clutching the railing, desperately holding onto life, he understood his father now. The voice within is his guide. Foolish, irrational, even reckless at times, life is about moments in time. The cold air fueled his lungs as he stood suffocating, soaked in confusion. His wrrior ways about him were ready to fold the battle of brutal stagnancy, he had no moments without her. He had everything, yet he had nothing of true value.
It was not his father's voice he heard. Louisa stopped him by placing her delicately sculpted hand over his aristocrat thin long fingers, gently removing them from the railing, looking deep into his eyes as if she heard his cry and reading his thoughts, she said: "Things can always get a lot worse. So this is not so bad." With a blatant disregard for her husband, he kissed her passionately, knowing it was the one and only time he would.
- from my novel Spring Time Among Ashes
(based on true events)
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