THE GLASS WALL
Today was the day Morris was waiting for all week. He was going to see Emily. A week at work had kept them from talking to each other. Emily called him, just as he had hoped.
“Hey, you want to meet me at the spot?”
“Sure, darling, I’ll be there soon.”
They were going to meet in the park by the pond where they had first met. Morris would stop by the bakery and buy a day old loaf of bread and he and Emily would sit on the bench by the pond and feed the ducks. They had grown exceptionally close in the year they had been dating, forming this incredible bond that would last to the edge of time.
Morris lived on the other side of the park. After going to the bakery, he walked through the gates of the park, past the rose garden and the white gazebo. Emily was walked through the gates, passing the basketball courts and the redwood grove. They were overjoyed to see each other again. It had been a long week for Emily. They never spent this much time apart.
As they drew closer to the bench by the pond, both of them struggled this feeling that something was terribly strange and unusual this time. Shrugging it off as just a thought, they were both anticipating the moment when they could hold each other in sweet embrace.
As Morris and Emily drew closer, feet apart, they were blocked from this moment of loving affection by a barrier no eye could see. Unsure of what to make of it, panic rushed into Morris, as he attempted again go past this invisible barrier and hold Emily, the only woman he could ever love, in tight embrace, only to fail to get past the barrier.
Emily grew anxious as well, desperately trying to claw through this glass wall. Morris’ frustration grew, for all he wanted to do was touch and hold Emily, stroking her beautiful blond hair. He began to try and punch through this glass wall, over and over again. His knuckles began to swell from repeated attempts.
“What is this? This isn’t working!”
“What are we to do Morris?”
She was beginning to sob.
Eyeing the bench by the pond where the ducks gathered in anticipation of the gift of bread, he thought he could step on the bench and go around the glass wall. Again, he could not penetrate the glass wall to get to his soul mate, nearly falling into the pond. Despair was driving them both mad. They did not understand what they were up against, or why this glass wall stood in the way of their love. Something was terribly wrong. Morris rarely cried, but he was feeling tears of desperation well up in his eyes as Emily desperately banged on the glass wall to try and get through. She kept banging at the wall, harder and harder, tears welled up in her eyes. She began to wail in desperation.
“Let me through! Let me through!”
“Emily, stop it! This isn't doing anything!”
At that moment, he eyed a construction worker’s sledge hammer leaned up against the tree. He was not a strong man, he was quite thin, but he felt it could get him through. He grabbed the sledge hammer, placing his hand opposite of Emily’s.
“I’m gonna break this! I swear to God! I will get through to you baby. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He could not stand to see her in pain. This glass wall was consuming their happiness. With one mighty swing of the sledge hammer, the strongest swing of a sledge hammer he had ever attempted, he tried to break through the glass wall. Upon impacting the glass wall, the metal head of the sledge hammer shattered into a million pieces. The glass wall had not wavered, holding stead-fast in invisible prowess.
“How is this possible!”
He collapsed to the ground, kneeling to the wall, facing Emily. This glass wall that prevented them from reaching each others love was cursing their once radiant hearts, tears were running down their faces, for what could they do? This invisible barrier, this glass wall, was giving them no mercy. It could not be seen by the naked eye, but it was infallible, devoid of compassion. It was throwing the two lovers into a crazed frenzy as they desperately tried to reach one other. Morris looked into Emily’s beautiful blue eyes and saw only pain.
He too was being driven mad by the separation, all his attempts were not bringing this rendezvous into fruition. They were feet apart, separated by the glass wall, but it may as well have been 4,000 miles. Was this what it was to be reserved to? A barrier separating the two lovers, their only comfort being memories long past?
Morris could not accept this notion. As he looked into Emily’s despairing eyes, even the memories of long past, these beautiful loving moments together, were driving him mad. He could not think of those moments because now there was the glass wall, separating him from the one he loved.
Emily stared at Morris, all she could see was his anger and sadness that the glass wall was bringing him. And she too had the memories, but they did not despair her as they did Morris, they calmed her down a bit, and yet all she wanted was to get to Morris, to kiss him in lovely embrace and feed the ducks as they usually had done. This was all she wanted, but the glass wall stood between them, invisible, and far more powerful than the attempts these mere mortal lovers could use to try and vanquish it.
Morris eyed the oak tree with a hole in it. It was the same oak tree in which he placed his phone number in a wood box for Emily when they first met. Reaching into it, he found a large wooden cigar box, and inside it, a .38 revolver. Again attempting to break the glass wall he had hoped it could shoot a whole into it big enough to leave a weakness in it so he could smash through it with what remained of the sledgehammer.
“Emily, step away from the wall.”
Emily stepped back as Morris aimed the revolver, and fired off a shot. It ricocheted off of the glass wall. Again another shot. The glass wall held fast. Another. Yet still it wouldn’t break. Angry, and immediately thrown into a more spiraling despair, Morris collapsed to the ground in agony. He came to the realization there was nothing he could do. All his attempts at breaching the glass wall ended in terrible failure.
What could he do? He never wanted to go on in this life without her love. He couldn't picture his life without her, and yet there was no way to get to her. The glass wall had broken his heart, removing the last remainder of hope in Morris. Emily too was angry, despairing at the repeated failures by Morris to break the wall so they could be reunited. She watched as her lover was thrown into a fit, screaming and cursing wildly as he paced around in a fit of depressing hysteria.
All options exhausted, Morris came to only one conclusion. He looked at Emily, the memories of the love they shared merely haunting him without joy. The glass wall had taken that from him. It had taken the once sweet memories of the love they shared, and twisted them into mind-contorting nightmares. Looking down at the grass, he picked up the revolver. It still had two bullets in it.
He walked over to Emily, who by now was broken, unable to understand why this glass wall would commit such a heinous crime of separating such a pure love. She saw that the revolver was in his hand. A feeling of terror coursed through her veins. Morris stared into her eyes with a subdued look of complete existential defeat.
“Emily, darling. I cannot go on like this. I can’t see myself living in this world without you, we are separated, and I have no control over this. The memories of us no longer bring a peace of mind, but rather, an empty and lonely terror. I must leave you. I love you. Always.”
A shot was fired through Morris’ chest. The shot echoed through the park. The birds flew frantically from the trees. And then there was silence, a dead, and empty silence. The glass wall had vanished in that moment, and Emily ran over to Morris, who by now was dead. One more shot, another echo. All that was left was silence.
