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Forget

There's something strange about the spot on the hill. It's a beloved spot, where the folks of my town go to forget.

There's a small grove of trees on the hill, gnarled and short, and if you can press past them you'll find that they make a sort of dome. A few sprouts here and there suggests that the trees do try and grow here, but turn their branches elsewhere instead.

Near the trees on the hill, there is a small building. You might call it a chapel. Where a priest lives to help people forget. She guides people through the dome which sets them free of their burdens. She tells me, as she pulls a large book down from a dusty shelf, that I can forget any one thing once in my life. It's not complicated but it isn't always easy. I'll have to be careful I don't forget too much.

I have waited a long, hard life to come to the spot on the hill. I always knew that I would have to carefully choose what I can forget. Unlike most in this town, who waste their chance to erase the heartache of their first breakup when they're too young to know what love really means. I've seen couples repeat years of their lives by falling in love, growing, fighting, splitting, Forgetting, falling in love again. I can't imagine what it would be like to forget Thomas. He's always been so good to me.

I walked a long, hard walk to reach the chapel on the hill. My son helped me walk this path and never once asked what I came here to forget. He knows that I've spent a long time deciding on just what memory will spider-web through my years and soften all the edges of a long life. It's hard to know the true source of it all, but if I forget some happy things I wouldn't know it would I. It'll be so good to be free of so many memories, even good ones, that have suffered the endless drip of sadness, oozing from a hole carved out of my life, my home.

The priest looks at me compassionately as I explain why I have come to the grove on the hill. After a few moments she interrupts me gently. She sets down a yellowed book and apologizes. I tell her there must be some mistake. I've never even been to the top of the hill before. Surely I would remember that.