Stan

“Ever wonder where we would be if our lives had taken different paths instead of the ones that have lead us to this point? Where would we be instead of here, at this moment, at this place? Have you ever stopped to consider the possibilities?”


“No. I have not considered the possibilities.” came Stan’s response while strapped to the lawn chair.

“You really should entertain those thoughts, they could help you realize the err in your ways.”

“What errs? My life choices are those of my own, no one elses. Why should I reflect back upon the life that I have lead to try to pinpoint spots in my life that would have been better served if I had taken some other direction?”

“You say your life is without mistakes or without regret? That everything you have done has gone the way you have wanted to, without any surprises or failures?”

“I have made mistakes, I do have regrets. Everything has not gone the way I have wanted to. I have had failures, losses and tragedy but there is no way to go back to change any of it. The past is the past, only there to learn from and to reflect back upon, with the good and the bad.”

“So you would change nothing then?” inquired the man.

“Not at all. To change a regret, a mistake or a failure would change the person that I am today. Would mean removing an experience that I was able to learn from, to alter what I am.”

Stan is a father of two little girls, ages three and five, married to a beautiful woman for the past eight years, owns a house in the suburbs, works for as an attorney in a large firm downtown and has recently been abducted by a psychopath. He will not be missed for several days as his family is away visiting her parents; it is a three day weekend with the office closed and Stan stayed behind to do some extra work on an important case for a client.

Of all the inopportune times to be a workaholic, this is the worst time, Stan thought to himself as the man takes his life from him.