would I dare to turn the page?

She was at the end of the chapter.
Though it took a while to realize it.
She kept re-reading the last sentences, but not because she couldn’t understand them,
nor were they the kind of beautiful sentences one needs to read again,
but she was reading them to linger.
And then, as she came across to the empty page after those last words, it struck her.
The girl was definitely at the end of her chapter. And the thought disturbed her.

Then there was the man. He did indeed look quite young, but he had the hands of an old man.
You know, the kind of from which you see that they have worked. Gotten dirty.
They had been talking about the previous chapter for quite a lot. And still she didn’t quite know what to make of the man. Wise he was, that was for sure. Many times she had trouble to understand the things he was saying. But still, she was glad to hear him speak.
But now, awakening to the fact that the chapter was out, she found herself lacking of hearing.
Or was it lacking of listening? She didn’t quite know.

And she found herself in between.
Totally finished with her chapter.
Terrified to step in to the next.
She knew that there was nothing anymore for her in the previous pages.
But the coming pages, boy. It was a contradiction. One the other hand she so knew what was ahead, on the other the words and their meanings were in hiding.
But she didn’t want to stay there. Didn’t want to stay in this passive vacuum, lingering with the words she already knew. But the step just seemed so big. Like stepping on to something that you aren’t really sure is there.

And its not that the man was totally silent. He was waiting.
He didn’t actually have to say anything. Not out loud. Cause she heard the things anyway.
He was inviting, but not persuading. And that was the worst kind of inviting.
Cause there were no spoken words, nothing to argue about.
Nothing where she could answer with the greatest excuse.
Yes, he was definitely inviting her