Reveal the Mirage

It was a soft whisper in the wind, a memory of what could have been. The scent of lavender persisted long after the seaside town had faded into dust. Redirecting my path, like the ocean’s tide, the urge to return lingered.

A spinning top. Graham's laughter echoed through the passage of years, bouncing off walls no longer standing. The playground lay abandoned now, yet the resonance of joy painted fleeting mirages in my mind, shadows pirouetting around rusted swings.

Beneath the old elm tree’s gnarled branches, whispered promises of forever lingered. Those summers with coral sunsets, when dusk at times felt eternal, were pierced now by creaking silent wood, a sound as hollow as lost time itself.