127. Nail place

It embarrassed him sometimes. He understood all the reasons she did it, but it was impossible to explain it to anyone else. She raised him in this universe of hers, it was relentlessly fascinating to him, even now, with her collection of ephemera and him as her ultimate cheerleader. He knew this urge to walk away was fleeting. So he stood by her forever.

126. Kung Fu poster

It’s how she remembered her father. He was the perfect, infallible, ideal of a man. She couldn’t think of one moment where he wasn’t her world. It was the point that arrested life for her mother and her. They had a complete inability to move on from his memory. But move on they would, in a way that was unexpected to them both.

125. Queen street sign

He knew that only a keen eye would perceive it. The guilt of his fault was done and he couldn’t take it back. It had caused detrimental, rippling effects and had paralyzed his mind with the secret knowledge. He had never lied about it, and that fact helped him carry on, it was his under-the-radar behavior that went unnoticed. By the time he admitted to it, no one even remembered.

124. Happy kids truck

He carried his heavy heart wherever he went. Vibrant memories once so easily recalled were lost in the shadowy corners of his mind. He started to depend on false ideals to retrieve him from the depths to which he had become accustomed. A momentary smile, even a faked one, would propel him through the day. He grimaced for all to see. Then he met her and it came naturally.

123. Couple on street

The change was imperceptible. Unspoken between them, their thoughts crossed and converged. What was a potential connection was now an absolute attachment. To say whether love would come was difficult, they both felt it germinating but their hindrances detracted them from admitting it, to themselves or one another. And so the dance began.

122. Hilts on the parking machine

He was beyond his comfort zone. Having to come downtown was one thing, facing her was another. A lifetime of pressures had vaporized into a small lady lying in a bed that folded, a broken bird in a nest. She looked at him with love and not judgment for the first time. His hardened heart was unprepared and he melted. He couldn’t wait to get out of there.

121. Spadina Matress

The memories had faded. The gang of four was long gone, their club dissolved, she was the only one left, cheeks pale with no recollection of the freckles of summer. The clubhouse was not the castle she remembered, it looked dingy and plain. Maybe she had grown up and rampant imagination had succumbed to reality. She didn’t wear her hair in two braids anymore and wondered about the other girls who had shared a life of abandon with her. She thought of next summer with trepidation.

120. Lee Garden

His parents had no idea. If they knew this was how he spent nearly every Sunday morning, heavy headed, foggy minded, they would make him come home and work for his father. This would surely kill his soul. As repulsive as this thought was he recognized that his attempt to tackle the big city, a struggle that should lead to success, was failing fast. He was just about out of ideas… just about.

119. Power station

It wasn’t as impressive as it used to be. At first it made her feel haughty and the ego trip began in earnest. She was in the corner office, she had the power to delegate, take a vacation if she wanted to and pandered to the boss with ease. Now with emptiness and devastation, it had ended abruptly. It slowly dawned on her it was a chance for real life to begin.

118. Streetcar man

For the first time he felt out of control. She had sacrificed a lifetime for him. Raised him, fed him, housed him when she had no reason to, she wasn’t even blood. But to him she was Ma and meant the world. He escaped within himself to say goodbye in a way that was meaningful only to him.

117. Trash

It made no difference, he thought, it was to be his lot. To him the future appeared bleak and these steps weren’t helping the dismal situation he was in. Swimming upstream was becoming an impossibility and he admitted to himself quite frankly that he was drowning no matter what he grabbed onto. It was this change in vision that would give him clarity to divine his ultimate prophecy.

116. Shopping for shoes

It was a favourite. Mother dragged him along guiltily but in truth it was becoming a so-called formative experience. The eye-level examination of all the shiny details was fascinating and the colour would become his palette for years to come. Later when he was asked about his influences, the Construction Worker’s Union would feel uncomfortable hearing the story of the high-heeled shoes.

115. Subway couple

She forgave him. It was what he wanted, needed, to be swept up by arms and emotionally gathered. She could easily compartmentalize his previous actions. It wasn’t that she would let him off, but things would be sincerely different than before. He just didn’t know it yet. The false sense of security lulled him into a comfort that would make the news softer. After all, he had interrupted her coffee run.

114. Curtain

He wouldn’t disturb her. Pretending to be nonchalant he listened intently as she spoke to herself. It was another language, her language, articulated with opinion and reason. Within it she was another person, not just the one he was coming to know and growing to love, but the being she would become, with strength and wisdom. It was her safe spot. So he fought the urge to remind her about the dust under there.

113. Lumix

It had been an extension of him for so long that he had few memories before it. In fact he had spent an excessive amount of time hiding behind it, using it as armor to shield himself from real life, preferring to have experiences peripherally and at a safe distance. Now he put it down and took a slow look around. The color was more saturated then he thought.