Adelaide.

Adelaide sat quietly on the balcony, watching the sun rise and the commuters set off on their daily plunge into the mundane.

The already heavy air was enclosing her already sopping-wet insides and squeezing them, until she felt she could heave her heart onto the cement platform at any minute.

The future.

It was a weighty notion that overwhelmed and consoled. Ideals were being purged, and reality was growing brighter and brighter just beyond the silver buildings across the freeway.

She lingered upon those ideals. They had made her feel awed and so lucky to have been chosen.

Who was she?

Several years of all that she had dreamed, built, and named was slipping away. Adelaide clung to it for a few more minutes. Holding its warmth, touching its corners, memorizing its form for one last time. And then she breathed it all away from her.

The reality stung upon new arrival, especially as it fully reached her from the horizon. A new, and slightly familiar face to characterize and comfort her. It made promises against the former, and undid the past with a vow for the now and the to-come. She had never been one to trust strangers.

But her ideals had told her that this one would be better, although a little painful at first, and without it she would not be able to continue.

She so wanted to continue.

Therefore, she scooped it up, carried it inside, and slowly began to swell with a love and a quiet understanding for the times that had led up unto this one.