Once upon a time there was a character in a story. A character who had a name, a place and a thought. The thought was that the character was missing something. Missing something important, but couldn’t figure out what.

The character looked all over its place in search of the something important that was missing. Other characters would hear the character’s name and shake their head. They didn’t know what it was missing, either.

But still the character knew that something was missing. So it went back to where its story had started, and saw four words. Once upon a time. The character inspected these words for a secret code, clambering up and down each and every letter trying to find what it was missing.

Eventually, the character gave up and went back to its place. It lay down to sleep, and started to lose all possibility of time. The place the character was in had paused.

Doors locked.

Windows down.

Lives shut.

The character stared out from its place, trying to make sense of where it was, what it was and what was missing.

In the distance, the character could just read the words that had started the story.

Once upon a time.

Suddenly, the character knew what it was that it thought it had been missing (for it had not been missing what it thought it had been missing).

For time is a possibility that can never really be lost, even if it does seem to be constantly running out.

And the character knew that this was A time. This was not another time. Not a different time. Not a future time or a past time. This was A time. And there would be no other quite like it.

So with a new thought in tow, the character set out from its place to find the next words. Words that could only happen in A time, with a character who had a name, a place and a thought.

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Jena Ren (Jenny Guilford) – 2020

This was post originally published July 14, 2020.