A penny for your thoughts?
The voice startled Clara out of her reverie. She blinked and turned to find an old man leaning on the iron railing beside her. His tweed cap sat low over his brow, and his hands were weathered, as though they’d carried many lifetimes of work.
She hesitated. “Oh, I was just… thinking.”
The man chuckled softly, a sound like gravel shifting. “That much was obvious. But what about?”
Clara glanced back at the canal. The water mirrored the late afternoon sky, turning golden where the sun kissed its ripples. “About choices,” she admitted. “The ones I’ve made. The ones I haven’t.”
“Ah,” the old man said knowingly. “The currency of regret.”
Clara smiled faintly. “You make it sound like I’ve been collecting coins.”
“Perhaps you have,” he replied. “We all carry a purse full of them. Some heavier than others.” He tapped his pocket with a mischievous grin. “I’ve got quite the jingle myself.”
Something about him loosened her tongue. “I left a job I hated. Everyone said it was brave. But now I’m not so sure. What if I threw away something safe for nothing certain?”
The man tilted his head, considering her. “Safety can be a gilded cage. You escape it, and the world looks terrifying, yes. But it’s also wide open. You can stretch your wings there.”
Clara’s chest tightened. “What if I fall?”
“Then you’ll find the ground is not as hard as you think. And if you don’t fall—well, then you’ll discover you can fly.” He straightened slowly, brushing dust from his coat. “The question isn’t what you left behind. It’s what you’re willing to move toward.”
Clara followed his gaze to the horizon, where the sky blazed with colors too wild for hesitation. For the first time in months, she felt something stir—an ember of possibility.
When she turned back, the man was gone. Only the railing remained, cool under her fingertips.
Clara laughed quietly to herself. Perhaps she had been speaking to a stranger. Perhaps to no one at all. Still, her pocket felt heavier, as if a coin had slipped into it—one she hadn’t carried before.
A penny for her thoughts. And suddenly, her thoughts were worth far more.
Word count: 400
Therapy Bits 
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