A single icy finger runs down your spine as you peer in the mirror. Did you really see that, in your own eyes? A small tangible spark that dares to fight back against rules you’re forced to follow. Eager to get out of its cage, a cage they helped you to build from the day you began to think for yourself. You were optimistic about the future, your dreams expansive and unafraid.
But now you find yourself the captive of a warm, comfortable life.
You brush your hair into its usual style, check for stray nostril hairs, pop that last pimple, and sigh. What would happen if you called in sick? You test cough to see if you might, perhaps, have a sore throat. Would your employer cease to make money because you didn’t go in? Would co-workers never speak to you again because they had to pick up the slack? Would your social life suffer? Or would everything continue as normal without you?
You could take a day. A day to plan your new future. A day to indulge in your secret passions. A day to express your true self.
You ruffle up your hair a little – much less corporate now. Add a dash of colour to your outfit. And walk out the door like a good little drone. The spark sees its imminent death. Day by day you kill the part of you that keeps you alive – by choice, a misguided choice of course, but a choice none the less.
But don’t worry – there’s a cure, well not a cure so much as an ongoing treatment, that will keep that little spark alive until you can escape your cage for good. You can feed it and help it grow expressive again. Give it wings, give it teeth, give it claws.
Carve out a little time in your day, every day, and experience a literary transportation of your soul. Wilder than you ever dreamt before.
K.T. is the darker side of Kate Trinity.
