5 ∅ [Anonymous Text]

[callbacks]

[You'd think Dave would have learned his lesson about anonymity, but maybe learning doesn't stick so well at ass in the morning when he can't sleep. At least it doesn't seem like he's really trying to mask his identity, here. It's just...a plausible deniability thing, maybe. Probably, given the content of his message.]

what was growing up like for you
like
how was your childhood
were you happy

Comments

anonymous text;

[callbacks]

[...]

how

anonymous text;

[doitrockapella]

By leaving behind the places.

I never said I was a very good role model for that sort of thing. But that's how I coped with things, frequently.

I hurt someone who loved me once, doing that. Leaving. I realized too late that he cared about me — I have a bad habit of assuming that people only care if I...go out of my way to make them.

anonymous text;

[callbacks]

did you ever go back
after you left him

anonymous text;

[doitrockapella]

I did. It took me ten years. He'd spent that time in a depression, blaming himself for my actions.

...Have you heard the phrase "treat the cause, not the symptom"?

anonymous text;

[callbacks]

uh sure
probably
seems like sound medical advice anyway

anonymous text;

[doitrockapella]

I went back to try to fix things, but I was treating the symptom, not the cause.

I think they did end up righting themselves in the end, but it wasn't because of me.

anonymous text;

[callbacks]

so
the symptom was
leaving?
and the cause was



???

anonymous text;

[doitrockapella]

Mm. No, the symptom was...he'd stopped doing the things that he'd enjoyed. Stopped exercising his skills. The cause was that he blamed himself for what I'd done.

I got him to exercise his skills again, but I never treated the cause. I never apologized, and I also never told him that nothing he did had any bearing on why I'd done what I'd done.

I should've told him he didn't fail me. He deserved to hear it from me, but he never did.

anonymous text;

[callbacks]

oh


what do you do
if you cant treat a cause

anonymous text;

[doitrockapella]

Maybe that depends on why you can't treat it, for starters.

anonymous text;

[callbacks]

what if the cause died three years ago
so theres no
meaningful reconciliation that could be had
if there was even the possibility of such a thing in the first place

anonymous text;

[doitrockapella]

That's more difficult, but not impossible.

Then you make peace within yourself, and honor the good, and lay to rest the bad.

anonymous text;

[callbacks]

that does sound harder



guess its not like i have anything more important to do around here though