October 18

Prompt:  He divided his life into before and after

* * *

It was easy to divide her life into before and after, it was so clear, swept away by guerilla Red Cross women, who would believe such nonsense. Taken from a hospital dispensary into the jungle, the steamy jungle. It was the step out of the door, the before, Nicole thought it was the closing of the clinic door that marked the before, and the cave where her trek ended, the after...Nicole was wrong. Not about the door, but it had been the closing of her closet door, the one with the poster of the Beach Boys on the inside, with a rack for her belts hanging to the side, it was that door closing that was the beginning. Nicole didn't think about her life at home. That seemed impossibly far away, but the clinic, with its pure white walls and bright light, carved into the branches of the jungle, that seemed a time she could remember. When she ground powders, worried about mail from home. That was before. This cave, the dry darkness, the cool dust...in this cave she felt as if she were becoming an albino snail, that was her after, to huddle in the hazy air and she realized she could not imagine any other place.
--Mary Pauer, RBWG member

* * ** * *

I divided my life into before and after.
What went before was of no import.
Life began the day you took my hand
And became forever more my safe port.
You are my guiding spirit, and I wish
There was a way for me to convey
Exactly what I feel when I am with you,
But words are not expansive enough to say
How wondrous you are, and wonderful too,
Or all my mind believes and my heart feels.
I am privileged to be loved by you, and
As life now unfolds from timeless reels
I no longer fear the approach of darkness.
I no longer long for the good old days.
What is past has passed, and I am fulfilled
Knowing I will be beside you until my last days.
--Jim Van Loozen, RBWG Member

* * *

He divided his life into before and after. Before he lived west of the Mississippi, west even of the Missouri. He smiled as he recalled the wide Missouri, wider than the Mississippi where he crossed them. After, he lived east of the Missouri, even east of the Mississippi. Before he lived in a small house where his skis and hiking books, jackets, poles, gun, tent and mess kit and books lay about the large room and a half--the cooking area--that looked out towards the mountains in the west. Now he lived in a tiny room on the third floor of a large house where he had cooking privileges in the kitchen downstairs. He couldn't see anything but more houses--when he could see out the window.  
--Sharon Hoover, RBWG member

* * *

He divided his life into before and after he quit drinking.  It was a "game changer," as they say these days.  Before that he'd divided his life into before he'd gotten that job with Medicare and after, because having a job that absorbing is also a "game changer."  Before that, he'd divided his life into before he'd been drafted and after he'd gotten out of the Army, because what you learn about life in the Army is also a "game changer."  And before that, he divided his life into before he'd married her and after, because learning to share your life is a "game changer" too.  He realized at this point that he could go on and on with this before and after stuff:  life is change and every new play is a prospective game changer. 
--Tom Hoyer, RBWG member