Are You Listening?

A man stands on the roof, alone. It is night, and the darkness hides him from the pedestrians down on the streets. He is about to jump, his left foot about to take the final step into eternal nothingness. He hesitates. He remembers waking up on a lovely Sunday morning, savouring the smell of freshly made toast, made magnificent by the accompanying sight of her in his t-shirt, obviously oversized. That smile, forever etched into his mind, unforgotten and unchangeable. For that moment in time, she was his, and he was hers. He cannot stop this last step. A few seconds later, a little girl screams as she sees the mangled corpse of a man with a note in his hand.

A woman sits alone, in her dark apartment. In her hands, a few dozen sleeping pills. No one knows she is at home, contemplating eternal nothingness, wiping the stale tears off her bruised cheeks. She is about to put the pills in her mouth, and for a split second, the scene of one particular Friday afternoon flashes into her mind. It was spring, and the flowers came out to play. She was holding her baby, her little princess. The little baby adored her, giggled as she played with her nose. The baby's eyes trusted her with her life. She isn't going back. In the next few hours, a husband comes back home to find his wife lying on the sofa, lifeless, with photos of their baby all over the floor.

The things we lose. The people we can never see again. The deaths that we mourn for.

Are you listening?