Yellow pants

He was confident but this time he stepped softly. His intuition said to be mindful. She was different and it was clear he shouldn’t damage things. Curbing his usual traits, the stubbornness, the goofiness, didn’t stifle him as much as he anticipated. Still, he felt relieved when she ran boisterously towards him, arms flailing, teeth grinning.

Dundas street photog

She had to admit, they were her family. The company had been her life, at times it sucked all she had to give and she had made life concessions and major compromises to be what she thought was a cog. But looking back, she saw how she contributed, the ink she poured was worthwhile, even if it felt like blood. Those years were the best.

The Madonna

It was everyone else’s expectation that she was born into. There were times when it flowed over her like a warm hug, her mind numb and accepting. But once she started to ask questions it was apparent no one had the answers nor wished to guide her towards them. When she decided to find them out for herself she felt enlightened and tried to return to the fold, but it was difficult to conform. She stepped out and journeyed toward the divine alone.

129. The team

It seemed easy. He had the feeling assimilating could change his world. It would be simple to become someone else, to just be a friendly face, not a rebel, not a challenger to any and everything. In truth, he was simply tired. He wanted to fit in for once in his life. If it didn’t make him happy, at least it would please his mother.

128. Fashion show legs

He was compelled to watch her move. It was a compulsion he no longer resisted. She knew and moved accordingly, full of moments and memories for him to lock away and recall when he wished. It was corny, they both knew it, but it felt true to them and was only one of the tethers that bound them.

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.