A short story by Daryn Tsuji

The Choice

Amy nervously looked around the room as she unconsciously wrung her hands.  The smoke hung thickly in the air as the piano notes bounced off the tin ceiling.  Voices spoke in hushed tones as the woman in the sparkling dress sang jazz classics one after the other.

 

Amy looked down at the ice cube floating in her glass.  It seemed like only yesterday that she was given the chance of a lifetime.  It was like a dream come true.

 

The decision was a difficult one and Amy had been thinking of nothing else since the opportunity was presented to her.  She did not know anything about the man who offered it to her but she was wary of him, not quite trusting him but not disbelieving altogether either. 

 

She had thought of the many different choices that she had made through her life, dropping out of high school, moving out west when she was only seventeen, even her decision to finally go back to college and break up with her boyfriend.  All seemed like such obvious choices at the time but looking back they represented such big forks in her life that she could only imagine what might have been had she gone down the other road.

 

For a long while she had agonized over which of the many forks in her life she should choose to have unmade and almost every day she changed her mind.  How was she supposed to make such a big decision in only seven days?  In the end, the decision was simpler than she thought it would be.

 

Now, here she was sitting in a jazz bar in a part of town that she clearly didn’t belong, waiting for a creepy old man she only half trusted to glide in and give her the opportunity of a lifetime.

 

The time for considering all that was over though, He had just walked into the room and as his eyes slid from person to person Amy shuddered as she waited for his eyes to settle on her.  There was something in his eyes that made her want to look away and look at something else, anything else.

 

Finally spotting her the man walked across the room and settled himself into the chair across from her. 

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“Good Evening Amy” he said “how are you tonight?”

 

“I’m fine” she replied hastily, “Can we just get to it?”

 

“Of course” he replied “What is your decision?  What decision do you regret so much in your life that you would like to go back and change?”

 

Finding courage now that the moment had come, Amy sat up a little straighter and said “When you first came to me with this offer, I was sure that I would have no trouble picking a moment in my life when I made a decision that I regretted.” She continued 

 

“But after thinking about all the decisions that I’ve regretted, I’ve decided that since I have no way of really knowing what would have happened if I made the other choice, I am not willing to risk the life that I know today for something so unknown as to go down a different path than the one I have already taken.”

 

The man stared at Amy for a moment and she was afraid for just a moment that he was going to be angry.  But then he smiled a great toothy grin, one that was honest and one that put her somewhat more at ease.

 

“In the many years I have been granting people this opportunity, I have seen very few people who have refused the chance to change their path; and I have seen even fewer people who were truly happier once they had.  I am happy for you because you have stopped living in your past and are now living for your future.  That is the best choice you could have made.”

 

With that, he vanished in a puff of blue smoke leaving a bewildered and very relieved Amy sitting at the table.  She picked up her drink, drained it, and set the glass carefully back on the table before picking up her jacket and walking purposefully out the door.