There’s a footprint in the rock, and a tingle as I tentatively step my own foot into it. The fit is perfect. A long stride, and then another—this person was running. Towards something, or away? In hope or in fear? I’ll never know. Their tracks are here, fossilized across millennia, but the emotions have dispersed in a puff of chemical breeze.
“Ben,” I say, wanting to share this ache of ignorance with him. And then I stop, looking at him in a piercing moment of loneliness. I have no clue what this living, breathing man is feeling either.
–
Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here
Neil MacDonald Author 
Wow!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Trish
LikeLike
So true. An express we often hear is; telling people to come out of their shell.
We can never tell what others are thinking, maybe by intuition we sense an idea, but can we ever be sure?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much. James
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Neil,
Intuitive piece. Sometimes it’s best if we don’t know what the other person’s feeling, isn’t it?
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 1 person
The great think about fiction is it takes us right into other people’s heads and abates the aloneness
LikeLike
Moody. Complete sense of loneliness and wonder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Tannille
LikeLiked by 1 person
As we wonder about a world long lost and gone in the past, we realize that we are yet to know the present & all what is in the heads of our known people here!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We can never know the inside of someone else’s head
LikeLike
Pretty powerful stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Danny
LikeLike
Strangely, I first thought of Robinson Crusoe, and then I found myself carried to future, with someone looking back at fossil records of today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Both are possible readings, I can see.
LikeLike
Nice texture in this, Neil. Makes me want to know more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Jade
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re very welcome.
LikeLike
Some say that eyes are the window to the soul, not in Ben’s case though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Keith
LikeLike
Excellent, Neil. I enjoyed how this worked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Bill
LikeLiked by 1 person
It reads like philosophy but really it’s an age old truth the bedrock of love and war alike.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Which is, perhaps, what philosophy is about
LikeLike
You have perfectly captured the moment of awareness when we realize that we don’t really know anyone as well as we think we do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or that we can never really know what goes on in another person’s head. Except by reading novels
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very powerful piece, Neil. I felt her pain. We can only imagine and never know fully what someone else is thinking or truly feeling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Brenda
LikeLike
Wow this is stunning.
A really fabulously written piece.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much Laurie, you’re always so complimentary
LikeLike
This is sad. Really sad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s just the human condition, really
LikeLiked by 1 person
The mind … so powerful.
A great one this week, Neil.
Have a good weekend … Isadora 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Isadora
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! A powerful piece, beautifully done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, fleur
LikeLike
Maybe the direction of the toes may help tell whether they were running towards or away.
LikeLike
Perhaps, but only if the danger or the attraction were also fossilised
LikeLike
I was lost into your story. Beautifully written
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Vartika
LikeLike
Great story!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Bear
LikeLiked by 1 person