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Life's Labyrinth
by
Ofavon
In this case the prompt was an old desk under a single light. A parchment
covered with a maze of scrawls, and a pencil next to it.
The room was dark and empty now, just a single light over the table. It
illuminated the labyrinth parchment - a bewildering maze of pathways beginning
at
the start and ending at the finish. The old man had given up reluctantly and he
the Gatekeeper had left the room, closing the door softly behind them. As
they left, the Gatekeeper took a fresh pencil out of the jar and left it for the
next player.
The old man had been tracing the years of his life back through the labyrinth
to his very first day. He was now at a cul-de-sac and he timidly asked the
Gatekeeper if he could back up a little and try another path. "I haven't
gotten to the exit," he reasoned. "I'm sure I could find another path to the
exit."
"That's not the way we play the game, my friend. You've done quite well you
know. Look how far you've come."
"I'm sure I could go further."
"The pencil is indelible you know, and the path you've taken cannot be
erased." He put his hand on the old man's shoulder. "Thousands of people started
at the same time as you my friend, and look, hardly any of them are still
playing."
The Gatekeeper showed him the thousands of routes that began on the very day
his did. Almost all of them ended at blank walls far back of him.
"Doesn't anyone win the game? Do any of us reach the exit?"
"No, my friend. That's not why we play the game. The journey is the
important thing. Look at all these people ..." He showed the old man a
cul-de-sac far
back where millions of people ended their play abruptly. "That was the war,"
he said. "Remember? The great war?"
"Yes I remember," the old man said. "It wasn't fair. Look at all they
missed."
"What did they miss?"
"Everything. Everything since then, marriage, family, career. Happiness -
everything life is supposed to be. They finished the game before they got to
play."
"You had all those things, didn't you?"
The old man hung his head. "Yes, I did," he said.
"Remember them. You can take the memory with you ... you know."
"What's it like ... where I'm going, I mean?"
"Another game. Another chance to play."
The End
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