Piotr Piecko, Natalia

Signed PIECKO

Natalia sat in a café sipping her favorite martini. She was in no hurry.
A storm of thoughts was raging in her head, and her fingers were turning a delicate gold
ring with a small diamond. It glimmered in the lamplight, as if to
remind her of the happiness it was meant to symbolize. Yet in her heart
there was no joy.
"It should be different," she thought, feeling the weight of thoughts that with each passing moment
were becoming more and more unbearable. "She wanted to be happy. She wanted
to feel certainty." Yet here she sat, staring at the ring as if it were a
at a stranger who had entered her life without invitation.
She remembered his face when he knelt before her a few weeks ago. Smiling,
full of hope. How could she tell him that something was wrong? That in that
one moment, instead of love, she felt anxiety? - Maybe I'm just scared...," she whispered, though she didn't know whether these words
were to justify herself or to convince her heart. She knew that the time
for a decision was running out. Either she would take the ring off forever, or she would put it on
and let it remind her anew of a life she may not have wanted.
"It's not fear," - she said to herself finally, feeling tears
flowing into her eyes. "It's something deeper. Something I can't ignore."
She clenched the ring in her hand. Was the courage she needed now,
be enough to tear down all that they had built together so far?
"Women of the Labyrinth"