The ten years had changed her face, her smile had more contrast as shadows were thrown by steep wrinkles. Three break-ups, dozens of boys and some men had told her she is too exhausting to be loved. 

The relationships all were different, but had ended the same way, she wasn’t easy to follow nor easy to be taken care of. Lonely she was, for years and years she had spent nights writing her next episodes that never were played on stage. 

She was an actress, a venue, and she had more wigs than photographs of herself. She paid her monthly electricity bills in time in great fear her spotlight would die on her. 

She had travelled by train, by ship and by aeroplane and lost her hope of eternal love somewhere over the Atlantic a few years ago. She had had a great idea of writing a play about the sorrow at that time; “The Oceans I’ve Cried” was its title but she never wrote a single line, as it had never been her greatest strength to put things into action. 

She had driven down her own lonely road, sat at her friends’ perfect weddings and dressed in white solely in her messy home, played her favourite role of the flawless bride. She was tired of being a maid, ten years of perfect assistance to everyone. 

“Times are changing my dear, there’s a new decade waiting for you in your kitchen cupboard”, said her teapot with a whistling sound this evening. 

“This shall be the last Christmas spent alone”, it promised and she opened a bottle of red wine she had avoided opening, fearing headache and stains on her white gown. 

To hell with stains and aching, she wasn’t afraid anymore. 

“So goodnight my decade, sail away now, sink in the salty ocean I’ve cried.” 

Antti Asplund