Chapter 59 pool of tears

The notice outside the shed is accompanied by a small chest filled with smooth black stones, and the text instructs you to bring a stone into the shed with you. The tent was pitch black, and the ceiling was covered with open black umbrellas, their curved handles dangling like icicles. There is a pool in the center of the room. Black stone walls surround the pool, surrounded by white gravel. The air carries the faint salty smell of the ocean. You walk to the edge of the pool and look in, the gravel crunching under your feet. The water in the pool is rather shallow, but radiates light.The shimmering, shifting light scatters upwards through the water, in a soft glow sufficient to illuminate the pool and the stones at the bottom.Hundreds of stones, each exactly like the one you hold in your hand.Light from below filters through the gaps between the stones.

Reflections rippled across the room, making the entire tent appear to be submerged. You sit on the wall of the pool, flipping the black stone over and over between your fingers. The stillness of the tent became a kind of silent melancholy. Memories begin to creep out from the hidden corners of your mind.The disappointments of the past, the missed opportunities and lost goals, the heartbreak, pain and desolate loneliness. Sadness you thought you had long forgotten merged with wounds that were still fresh.The stone in your hand feels heavier When you throw a stone into a pool and it joins other stones, you feel lighter.It's not just a smooth polished stone that seems to let go of itself.