He’s going to go through the ice.
Nah, it’s rock solid that close to shore. It’s been plenty cold lately. You worry too much.
It only takes a second.
What does?
It only takes a second for your life to change forever. One weak spot in the ice and –sploosh– it’s all over.
Well that’s an awfully morbid thought.
It’s the truth. Every choice could be the one step towards irreparable damage. That guy’s taking a foolish risk, and for what? He’s probably just doing it for the ’gram.
Okay, first of all, calling it the ’gram actually makes you sound even more geriatric, if that’s even possible. And second, seriously, lighten up. You’re taking years off your life worrying about things that won’t ever happen.
—
What, now you’re not going to talk to me at all?
You never take anything I say seriously.
You take everything too seriously. It’s a bit of a downer if I’m honest.
Well so-rry for seeing things realistically. Life can change in an instant, you know. Reach over to grab your phone and –blam– an 18-wheeler smears you across the highway. Or put your password into the wrong site and –tada– some creep in Algiers steals your identity and drains your savings and it takes 7 years to build your credit rating back up. Meanwhile you can’t get a mortgage and you lose your job because your car gets repo’d and your fiancé legs it with his yoga instructor because he’s sick of chauffeuring you around. In an instant, I’m telling you. Everything has repercussions; you have to think things through.
Psh.
You can ‘psh’ me all you like. You know I’m right. Life is full of all these tiny instants that you can’t undo. Any given second can cause life-long consequences.
Must be heavy, having all that gravity weighing on you all the time.
Whatever. Be sarcastic. Live in the moment or whatever. I choose to live deliberately, carefully, for the long term.
That’s all well and good, but what is really scarier—knowing that life can permanently and drastically change at any moment, or feeling like nothing will ever change and this is it?
Well would that really be so bad? What’s wrong with this?
—
Are you unhappy? You can tell me if you’re unhappy.
—
Okay fine, don’t talk then.
Oh my God! The ice is cracking! Look—he’s drifting away.
Oh no! See, I told you! Oh this is a disaster. I can’t watch someone die. Oh lord. What do I do? What do I do?
“This is Felicia Weatherspoon live on location at the shore of Lake Huron where a 21-year-old Toronto man has just been safely rescued from an ice floe that had broken off and drifted nearly a kilometer from shore. I have with me the eyewitness who alerted emergency personnel. Tell me, Ms. Canmore, you’re walking alone along the shore when you see the ice begin to crack—what was going through your mind?”
Aly Writes 