Time's unexpected Expose.

When you grow up, pretenses and bad decisions tend to fall upon your wake like a shadow.

The thing that surprises you most is an unexpected realization which hits at the most alarmingly common time of day.

The realization:

The ripples that form from those pretenses and decisions have managed to defy the laws of science and spread their rings inwards instead of out.

Until those circles finally close in on you, and you feel like a bad joke the universe is chuckling about.

At 4 PM in the afternoon: You smile at the barista as you order your caramel frappe. You take that long breath before you dive into the blue pool located at the center of your condominium complex...(who knows, a million eyes hiding behind windows may be watching you. blue, brown, yellow, green, black, violet. but you don't care. you don't care. all you see is the welcome gaze of the pool smiling back at you). You give a sarcastic quip that makes your friends laugh or shriek or roll their eyes. You take out your handpainted Audrey Hepburn notebook and tap the fresh white pages with the edge of your ink pen.

And before the sun passes over your eyes, the explosive flash in your mind is gone. The billions of equations fall away, each pitchfork and crossroad you had ever crossed ceases its grip on you and you breathe in air.

In the nanoseconds which pass in aftermath, you watch as the barista hands over a smile, meant to be charming, as he hands you your frappucino.

The twinkle of watchful attraction glimmers in his eye.

You look down into the cinnamon powder which an unknown stranger sprinkled across the foam in your cool drink like a starry constellation.

And you decide that you have never felt such a brief moment of isolation as you walk away from the counter, carrying a drink with your name splashed across its side, and into the arms of the Entrance door.