Years later.
What happened to him? or He’s become exactly what he’s run from. All whispered, you know.
What had happened to him? Firing people left and right, just because of his irritableness. Had his age gotten to him? Or was it that he had forgotten to live?
Stan had loved once. His wife, his children. Where did they go? Had he forgotten them, too? Had he forgotten everything?
What year did I gradute? What war was I in? What was Dad’s middle name? Oh, Dad.
Stan’s father had died last year. He tried so hard to remember his father. Then, like bullet to the chest, it hit him. He had wondered why is father was so resigned. Now, he didn’t. He knew exactly what had happened. He had forgotten to live, too. He forgot how to love, how to think. I’m the man, he thought, it’s no fun to be the man.
Stan wanted more than anything to feel free again, like he had year and years before.
He stood up and stripped from all his clothing and flung his office door open and ran.
It was the ascent of Stan. He lived.