"I picked her up from the school, traffic is terrible!" His wife said, almost screaming.

"Well...what would you expect, after all, think what's about to happen." He said, too calmly, too quietly.

"Can't you get back home, before....", she asked, the pain evident in her voice.

"No, honey, I can't. There was a big accident in the parking garage when everyone was trying to get out. They just left their cars blocking the exit and ran. The busses are all shut down...there's no way, baby." He replied, for the first time emotion in his voice. He quickly continued, "I'm going out to have my lunch." He closed his gray eyes, thinking of his wife and daughter. "Tell Katy I love her...and I love you too." And he had hung up before his wife could say anything else. He trusted her to let the moment be its own, to not call back and ruin it, which she didn't. His wife was a wise woman, she knew when things were finished.

Now as he walked the shady park, the sun breaking through the cloud cover, his mind remembered.

He remembered his desire to become a writer and his desire to be a doctor. He remembered when he was young, the dreams he would have of being a rich person, jet-setting across the world, wintering here, summering there...doing whatever desire possessed his heart that day. He dreamed of being able to retire early, having such financial security that by not working, he would still be able to earn money. He dreamed of sailing the ocean in his very own yacht, sky diving, visiting the Holy Lands, Europe, Africa...all the places of fantasy and adventure from when he was young. He never did any of these things, never went to any of these places.

He had never fulfilled any of his boyhood dreams, he had never, not once, decided to miss a day of work so that he might merely spend the day with his family. He didn't chase after his dreams. He conceded defeat.

Life played him rummy when he wanted to sit at the poker tables. He was intimidated by medical school, dropped out and entered a school for engineering and architecture, two passions he had since a boy, but they weren't his dreams, they weren't what he wanted. But they were fast emerging fields, fields with guaranteed revenue and profit for those with a talent, which he had always possessed, for art.