Everything Matters

Jim looked across the lake and saw a man beating his girlfriend.  Her screams and his yells echoed across the  water, but Jim just stood there.  Nothing mattered.

The girlfriend broke free of her boyfriend's grasp and began running from him.  He chased after her.  Jim wasn't really paying attention though.  Nothing really mattered.

The girlfriend tripped and fell, the boyfriend picked up a rock and raised it over her head.  She screamed one last time before he brought it down hard on her.  Jim was startled suddenly and seemed to notice the chaos for the first time, or at least really register it.  He stared.  Nothing mattered did it?

The boyfriend had murdered his girlfriend, smashing her face in with the rock.  Jim had stood there and watched.  Nothing mattered.

Two men had come running and subdued the boyfriend, holding him down until police arrived.  Jim still stood on he edge of the lake, watching but not registering, not caring. Because Nothing mattered.

"Excuse me mister," said a small voice behind him.  Jim jumped and turned around.  A young girl of about six or sever years of age stood in front of him.  "Can you please help me get my kitty out of that tree?"  Jim looked and saw a small black kitten watching them from high up in a tree.  Jim wondered if the little girl had seen the boyfriend murder the girlfriend only moments before. That mattered to him. But why?

"You shouldn't be around here," said Jim walking to the tree.

"Please, I just want my kitty back," said the girl shyly.  "Please?"

Jim looked up at the cat and back to the girl.  He noticed the girl wearing a bracelet.  It looked exactly like the one she had worn before the accident.

"Where did you get your bracelet?  It's very pretty."

"I made it." said the little girl proudly showing it to Jim.

"My wife had a bracelet just like it, she had made it too, at her school with her class."

"That's where I made mine," said the little girl.  "But my mommy says my teacher isn't coming back."

"No..." said Jim, "No she isn't..."

Jim climbed up the tree and pulled the cat into his arms and then climbed back down. The cat meowed and purred softly.  He handed the cat to the girl who thanked him and ran away giggling.  Jim looked back at the crime scene across the lake.  Police tape was being set up, and a tarp had been placed over the woman's body. He hoped the girl had not seen. That mattered. She was just a kid. She was so innocent.  The boyfriend had bee taken away.  Jim just stood and watched.  He had nothing else to do.  Did nothing actually matter?

As he drove home it hit him. As he passed a little girl drawing with chalk on the sidewalk, her little black cat frolicking around her, he understood. Everything mattered. Because everything was all he had left.