Locked into my memories?

Memories fade, so do I...

This line was playing in the back of my head all night long. I couldn't wait for the Sun to rise and for me to go out and enjoy the morning hours while feeling the fresh spring breeze spin all around my body.

The morning was here. And as everyday, I was ready to enjoy the beginning of it, feeling the sun rays on my bare arms and warming up my face, making my smile go wider. I was one of those early birds and this reminded me of their song I heard as I was heading out of the house.

I took my bike, to go for my morning "ritual" of enjoying life.

I was riding my bike, at a slow pace, around the streets of my neighbourhood. It was so quiet and peaceful that you could easily get scared of all this silence, if it wasn't for this warm sun that was accompanying me in my daily "journey".

Istanbul had never been so quiet. Maybe because of the weekend, and everyone is enjoying their sleep and relaxing in their houses.

All I could see around, were just a few people here and there, to break that loneliness and to add a bit life to that sleepy morning period.

The island seemed empty, so I went further, making me feel kinda better.

All this silence made me re-evaluate some things. To not take anything for granted. It reminded me of the time when I was a kid.

I was just a six-year-old kid when I got my first bike. It was in the 90's. The bike was as white as snow, with those storage boxes in front of them. I went out with my cousins and we went to the old factory a block away from my house. The box was full of flowers I picked with lots of love. I thought I was lost, as the other kids went further with their bikes and they didn't wait for me. I started riding the bike faster and faster in the long road that would get you right in front of the factory. And right when I saw them, standing in front of it, with their bikes on the ground, I got distracted and I fell on the ground face down. I had my knees scratched and my palms as well. The road was made of asphalt and it was still somehow new so it was still scratchy.

My eldest cousin came to help me get up, while the other were comforting me, as I was the youngest and as a kid I was, I felt like crying. I laugh with that to this day.

I felt like I was still a kid, ignoring the fact that I was a thirty-year-old now. Enjoying the fresh air, and the smell of the magnolia flowers that were falling all over the streets, 'washing' it off of the everyday dust and refreshing every passerby.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment, trying to re-live those happy moments. Suddenly, I heard a weird noise, so, right when I opened my eyes I saw a cat in front of me. I pulled the brakes quickly and turned my bike other way, trying not to hurt it.

Right when I stopped, I rushed to the cat, to see if it was okay. She was standing there, scared. I started petting the back of its head. Without thinking about it twice, I took it in my hands, while holding it against my body. I got to my bike, put the cat into my storage box, and I started slowly riding my bike, towards my house.

With a wide smile on my face, and as happiness was flowing from my soul, filing every void that I ever felt. A moment so brief, that took me twenty years back into my memory.

I decided to keep the cat, as a sign of hope for the future and as a sign that I was still locked deep inside of one of my best memories. The ones, that I still feel playing, right in the back of my head, making me feel nostalgic, yet happy for the times I lived in.