Almost...

She stops for a moment to take a breath.

Bad idea!

That gives her mind more than enough time to think.

Yet another bad idea!

She had learned the hard way to not acknowledge her thoughts.

She never used to be like this. She used to have this picture of herself, the way she wanted to be. It used to be so clear, so vivid, so colourful. But then a few years ago this picture started to get hazy. And hazier and hazier. That really scared her because she believed the picture always guided her, told her which direction to take and what decisions to make. What was she going to do now? She was lost and confused and she felt she had no one to turn to.

With the picture in her head getting bleaker, the world around her came into sharp focus. She saw things she never noticed before, things she later wished she had never come to know. And she did what she had always done in the past - tried to fix everything she thought was wrong.

Again, bad idea!

Helplessness was a strange, alien feeling for her. She didn't know how to deal with it and the best thing to do was shut it all out. So she left, walked away from the only person who could ever truly love her because he just knew too much. A clean break, she told herself. Shut it all out. Stop thinking! Ah, a brilliant plan. Only it didn't always work.

Like now...

She was thinking. Maybe she could fix this. Maybe she could be happy again. Maybe she could love again. Or allow herself to be loved. Maybe, just maybe... The fantasy never got beyond that - She didn't let it - and though the tears rolled down her cheeks, she wasn't sobbing or out of control. She just waited a bit, took a deep breath and continued to walk to where she was supposed to be.