Daily Write- His Name was James

His name was James. I say was like it isn't any more. Like somehow he suddenly doesn't exist or James is no longer his name. I am not sure if I found James or if he found me, but fate had it so we were both together. I was needed a place to run to. He just so happened to have something that worked for me. He brought me to this place of his. A place where the world stops right at the edges and all who walk into it are no longer remembered by those on the outside. It was out in the middle of nowhere, not a thing to see for miles.

For most, something like that would sound terrifying. But not for me. And not for those people who found James or who James found. People like them, people like me, we want the world to forget us. We want to runaway and hide forever. And somehow, James made that possible. We were untouched by the world and all that was in it. Finally allowed to live in peace. And James never asks what it is that we are trying to escape from. He only opens his arms and carries us across the border from reality and into nothingness. Sweet nothingness.

I was on my way somewhere else when James brought me here. I fully believed that I could make my life in this place, with all the others who understood the way I felt. James made me feel like I could rebuild myself. He made us all feel like that. And for a time, I knew what a normal life felt like. To wake in the morning, do an honest day's work, have friends, sleep in a bed, really sleep, not simply doze for worry that something would happen if I slept too deeply. I no longer had to forge my way alone.

But for all the amazing things that James could do, he could not keep the world from finding me. His arms were not that wide and his hands were not that strong. The bubble that encapsulated our happy world was soon to break because of me. The world seeped through the fringes of this place, heading straight for me doorstep. It would not let me be forgotten. I cried when I found out that I would have to leave. James said he would protect me. He would keep me hidden. But I knew that I had stayed for as long as I was able. It was now time for me to run again.

I thanked James. Thanked him for allowing me to feel safe, even if it was only for a short time. But now he must forget me. Deny that he had ever laid eyes on me. Destroy anything that would prove as a clue that I was ever here. 'What would I do now?, was the question that he posed to me. I told him that I wasn't quite sure. Maybe run off into the mountains. Or head into the forests. Or finish the journey I started before I met him.

The world had remembered me, despite James' best efforts. I cried when I left. Because I knew that James was not that far behind me and those who depended on him to keep them hidden, to keep them forgotten, would be remembered once again. And it would be my fault.