For life to come back someday

She loved this city for several reasons.

Not for it‘s beauty.

Old buildings.

Modern skyline.

It had nothing like that to offer.

The first time that she had been there, it had left no impression at all.

It was just one of those cities that were not too small and also not big enough to be interesting.

It got interesting, when the cafe next to the train station became a refuge during a magical night.

A magical night that had started with her leaving her home, knowing that coming back would be impossible. She had endured hours of discussion with the man that loved her, had caught an apple being thrown after her, took a knife from his shaking hands and had finally left.

Her knees shaking, tears still glowing on her cheek.

And she had stepped onto a train into oblivion.

Well, not really.

Her journey had had a destination.

And this destination had been a person. A someone waiting in that cafe.

Having ready a coffee and hours of listening.

She had been a mess.

And he had listened.

And just while she had been asking: “Why am I such a mess?”, a man had gotten up from a table in the back, had walked to the counter, looked around and had walked through the kitchen door, to be thrown out immediately.

“I thought this was the bathroom.”

And she exploded into laughter.

“You are still better than him”, he had said.

And they both had laughed.

And that is why they loved this city.

And for countless other days of refuge.

Hiding from her past, they would have had countless cups of coffee there.

They would spent hours in bookstores, pick out second-hand-outfits for each other.

None of them lived in that city.

That is why it became a refuge of life to them.

So yes.

She loved this city like no other place in the world.

It told her a thousand stories.

And today, she was scared of the story that it would tell her.

Because today, the city was empty.

The stores were closed and so was the cafe.

There were no people.

The train had been empty and so was the station.

She still remembered those other times.

She smelled the cinnamon, the pumpkin spice, the pages of the book that she had been reading here a few weeks ago.

It was all gone.

There was silence.

Silence and emptiness.

It was lonely.

It had become the loneliest place in the world.

It hurt.

It hurt her deep inside to see her city like this.

Because it was showing her that the world had changed.

It needed to heal.

The world needed to heal, for life to come back someday.