Your Life Isn’t Over Until It’s Over

“Where is it? Where’s my birthday ball?” cried Jonas, his little boy.

“I don’t know, but it has to be here somewhere!” said Jonas’ best friend, Tony. When their footsteps came closer, the red kickball felt relief.

It was a nice, sunny morning in the middle of spring and as such, Jonas decided to bring him, the newly gifted red kickball, to the park. Tony just happened to be there and the two boys quickly began to kick the ball back and forth. However, Jonas got a little over-enthusiastic and kicked the red kickball hard. As a result, the red kickball went flying into the air and far, far away from his little boy and Tony. When the red kickball landed on the ground, it was with a huge bounce, taking him even farther away from the boys. That bounce was followed by a second bounce, then another, and then he rolled until he finally came to a complete stop underneath an empty bench.

For the next few minutes, the red kickball was admittedly a bit nervous that he wouldn’t get found, though he was fairly confident that Jonas and Tony would do anything in their power to find him. Then he heard their voices and their footsteps and the red kickball knew that his belief in them wasn’t unfounded. He couldn’t see them, the only things he could see were the sunlight through the cracks in the bench above him and the empty bench on the other side of the path. But the red kickball knew that they were close. His little boy and Tony would find him any second now and then they would go back to playing.

The footsteps became fainter. At first, the red kickball thought that it was his mind playing tricks on him (in his defense, his insides were completely made out of air), but as the seconds passed, he realized that he couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore.

It was at that moment, for the first time in his short life, that the red kickball felt the overwhelming tidal wave of anxiety. Why were they going the other way? Did they give up searching for him on this side of the park? Were they forced to go home? Did they just give up on him? Did they find another ball and were playing with him or her instead? Would he ever be found? Was he going to live here for the rest of his life?

Then, just as the red kickball was about to bemoan over the fact that he was only a week old (toys or balls like him don’t truly start living until they are played with), he heard footsteps again. Any hopes the red kickball had were quickly dashed when he saw that the footsteps didn’t belong to the boys but to an elderly couple instead.

As the elderly couple stiffly sat down on the bench across from him, the red kickball grumbled (inwardly, of course, kickballs aren’t able to talk, let alone grumble) and wondered if this was his life. That he would stay here for the rest of his life, forced to watch random people walk by or sit on a bench.

Then, with a content smile, the elderly lady laid her head on her husband’s shoulder. If he was a human, the red kickball would have tilted his head. From what little he knew about life, especially human life, this woman was nearing the end of her life. So why was she smiling?

Her husband, with a content smile of his own, kissed his wife’s forehead before leaning his head on top of hers’ while closing his eyes. The red kickball just stared at the scene, stunned. They were old, and the red kickball knew that old people couldn’t run like his little boy Jonas. Yet, they were smiling and...happy. Like...they were just happy that they had each other. Like they weren’t afraid of the possibility that they might die tomorrow, that they were just happy they had this peaceful moment.

The red kickball’s anxiety slowly drifted away to be replaced with a feeling akin to calm. Maybe...not getting found by the boys wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. He was still new and full of air, and he was still alive. Surely he would get found by someone sometime, and while they wouldn’t be his little boy Jonas, perhaps they would happily play with him too. There was still hope that he could have a happy life. Just like how this elderly couple was still hopeful that they could continue living happily together.

“I see it!” The red kickball felt his spirits lift when he realized that the voice belonged to Jonas. As he heard Jonas running to him from behind, the red kickball knew that he was right to have hope that he could have a happy life.