The Starting Point
By: Annelise Lords
Tags: Fiction, Prose, Start And Ends, Success And Failure, Creative Writing

The Starting Point

Where did you start? Image by Annelise Lords

For ten years, Molly Hollis deprived herself of everything, except for the air she needs to breathe. She made sacrifices, broke rules and laws, cheated, stole, lied, destroyed lives and friendships. Created enemies and lost friends. Finally, she is where she wants to be. As she reaches the top, glancing around she sees a tall man running towards her calling out, “hold that ladder!”

After her final step, the ladder evaporates into the air and disappeared.

“Why didn’t you hold the ladder?” he asks angrily.

Shock jolts her body backward, and, “say what?” jumps out of her thoughts.

“Why did you let the ladder go?”

She nods, glances around ignoring his question, then wonders aloud, “where are the others?”

“The saying ‘it’s lonely at the top’ is true,” he reminds her.

“Yeah, but you can’t be the only one,” she remarks.

“See anyone else?” he asks in annoyance, swaying his head left to right.

Her eyes scan around like a flashlight, searching the darkness for something lost.

“Why did you want to use my ladder? Don’t you know that it disappears after you’ve reached your destination?”

“Then how do they get back down?” he asks.

Eyeing him crudely, easing her upper body back in surprise, she threw at him, “How did you get here?”

“I am asking the questions. I was here first,” he tackles her.

“Ok,” she backs down. “To get here all of us do different things because each of us has different reasons to want success. Some of our actions, choices, and decisions will push us up and tear us back down.”

“Like what?” he questions.

Eyeing him with a mixture of suspicion and wonder, she continues, “greed will take you up, and tear you down. So will dishonesty, karma, and all of the bad things we do that take us up. They also tear us down. Stupidity will tear you down, but it won’t take you up.”

“Aren’t there any good habits?”

“Oh yes,” she answers, still clouded in distrust. “Determination, endurance, a strong will, ambition, wisdom, common sense, discretion, strength, sacrifices, karma, and a strong faith and belief in yourself. Hunger too, but not for food. For the will to succeed.”

“You said karma twice. Why?” he asks, a perplexed look on his face.

“It cut both ways.”

Nodding in understanding he continues, “what brought you here?”

“A mixture of good and bad actions, choices, and decisions, but I am where I want to be, so I have no reason to continue my bad habits.”

“The bad things, did you have to do them?”

“Yes,” she answers in regret. “Climbing that ladder, for every step I took, I had more people pulling me back down than the ones helping me up. Honesty didn’t take me far. On my journey, I learned that only a few people wanted the truth.”

“How do I get down?”

“Are you for real?” flew out of her mouth faster than a convict who just found out that the door to his cell is open. “No one with a brain walks away from success. Why would you want to go back down?”

“I don’t, but this is where I started, and I lack the resources to stay at the top.”

Molly’s eyes widen, then she said, “you don’t look like someone stupid. The ladder only takes you up. Going down is free fall.”

“Gosh, where will I land?”

“You robbed yourself of that choice by starting at the top,” she reveals.

“So that means if I had started where you did, I would know where I will land when I fall?”

“You have the right answers, yet you ask a lot of stupid questions. Why start here?” she challenges.

“I didn’t have a choice. Fate put me here,” he said in regret.

Nodding she charges, “don’t tell lies about fate. You started at the top because it was easier.”

“Ok, I did,” he confesses. “What’s the big deal?”

Smiling she reveals, “you will find out on your way down.”

“What’s down there like?”

Suddenly a strong wind roars, he glances around attempting to flee. The wind lifts him off the ground.

He screams, “help me, please!” as another force pulls him down. He screams as he falls.

They said, “what goes up, must come down.”

Fate does put a few of us at the top, denying us sustained power and the knowledge of our return destination. The ladder to success only takes us up. We tear ourselves down through our actions, choices, and decisions. Your starting point can be an advantage or a disadvantage.

Where did you start?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it. please enjoy more from other writers on this platform.

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