I Said, No

I felt unprepared and unwilling when he asked, "Will you help?" I said, "No". I could tell that he was taken aback when he replied, "Did you say no?" That was when I said, "Yes, I said no''. That 'No' took a lot of years to arrive. Although the request was for a good cause, many things had changed and so had I. My friend deserved better than 'No' from me, but it wasn't about 'him' and 'deserved' had nothing to do with it. It was about the allowance of an overdue change to be born, and it was then and there that I allowed the change to begin. Until then, my life had been filled with "Yes", and saying 'No' this time never felt so good. 03122019PoSoupContest, 2019 Marathon Mile 24, Mark Toney