Diary Entry

A man reminisces about a memory from his past.

10th July 2017

I had it all, I had it made.

I remember it like it was yesterday, although I write this as I approach my 47th birthday. How I ended up in this tiny apartment is the result of a series of events that I had never expected to happen to someone like me. It was 20 years ago tomorrow and I can still remember her face when our eyes met. How her eyes sparkled as she looked over to my direction at that bar. That one fateful night which I could never forget for the rest of my life, and I never wanted to. I had a rich father, a multi-million dollar business empire, anything I could ever want handed to me on a silver platter. It was all within my reach as the sole heir to his immense fortune and I barely had to lift a finger in order to obtain this.

I was celebrating my birthday out with a few friends at a bar downtown, I can't remember the name of this place but I guess that doesn't matter right now. I say they were friends but I knew that they were only ever after my money, everyone was like that to me and it was a lonely life. I remember seeing her from across the bar, those eyes, sometimes green, sometimes hazel, they seemed to change according to her mood. She had long hair tied back exposing her neckline which was adorned with a small heart shaped necklace on a thin chain, not too much decoration, just enough to draw attention to it. A bright blue dress with a bow tied around her fantastic waistline. She saw me looking at her and smiled, it was a smile which drew everybody's attention but somehow I knew that she smiled like that only for me. I was dumbstruck at such beauty, completely speechless.

I knew as soon as I saw her that I needed to speak to her, I needed to know her name. I caught her on the way to the bar and left my friends to go get a drink, I already had a full one but that was long forgotten. I reached the bar next to her and introduced myself, she told me that she had noticed me looking and I made her smile. We got our drinks and left the bar to sit outside in the quiet, we spoke for hours which seemed like minutes. Time stood still when I was with her and I never wanted this conversation to end. She was quiet and liked to listen to me talk, I stumbled over my words and repeated things I had already told her but she just smiled and listened intently.

She was something else and even though my past experiences with people have lead me to believe that they are manipulative and untrustworthy, there was something about her that told me she was different. I decided not to tell her about my inheritance although I knew that she would eventually find out, I never liked talking about it anyway but people always find out. At the end of the night, which came all too soon, we had to leave each other. I needed to see her again so I asked her for her phone number and she typed it into my phone, I remember it so well because she placed a little heart next to her name, Alice.

She eventually found out about my inheritance and did something that I never expected, she didn't care. She was ambitious even though we could have easily never worked a day in our lives. She hated the money she told me and it was the cause of many of our arguments. Looking back it was such a silly thing. After many years and many arguments we decided to move away together, I refused my father the inheritance and told him to give it to someone in the company instead. She had taught me the true value of money. It was worthless.

So now I sit here in this small apartment many years later, writing this entry into my diary, living from job to job, struggling to pay the rent and thinking that the money really would have come in handy. I don't mind though, Alice is still here with me, by my side, just as she always has been and always will be. Her mere presence is worth more to me than everything I could have gotten through my father. It is a very different life than the one I grew up in, I never thought I would live this way. Different but somehow much more meaningful. I may have given up my lavish lifestyle, my gold-digging "friends" and my comfortable life. Now I struggle to survive and have to work hard for the luxuries I was so used to, but in my heart I know.

I have it all, I have it made.

Author's Note

After I hit a standstill on a book I'm writing I decided to just write anything straight off the top of my head. This was the result. It took me about an hour to do so it is short and almost completely full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. That being said, I love constructive criticism so be as critical as you like.