The Red String of Fate

theredstring offate

I’d been living the same way over and over again. Every day, the same things would happen to me as I went to the same places. At least, that was until one day, I woke up with a red string tied to the little finger of my right hand. It felt oddly in place there, and when I tried to take it off, it wouldn’t budge. I learned that the string would wind itself tightly around my finger when I moved, so I never had a mess of string at my feet. It was as if it was from a greater force. When I went to breakfast, no one seemed to notice the mysterious string. I made exaggerated gestures with my hand to get their attention, but for some reason they wouldn’t acknowledge it. So, for the first time since discovering it, I pulled on it. I was then surprised to find myself completely alone in the kitchen. When I let it go, everyone returned as if nothing had happened. This led me to surmise that when I grabbed the string, it would block everything around me from my mind and sight. After eating, I walked to school and noticed that the streets had more red strings in them that went in different directions. There weren’t that many, probably just three or four, but it made me realize that I was not the only one who had woken up with a red string. At school, there were about five kids who had the same colored string tied to their right little finger, three girls and two boys. Some looked worried and others excited, for some reason I could not discern. I knew none of them and when I made eye contact with them, only one gave me a sympathetic smile, as if saying: “I don’t know what’s going on either” . It became clear that if I wanted answers, I would need to find them myself. Apart from the “String Kids” , as I began to call them, no one else noticed anything had changed. The strange string would tug me towards a specific direction from time to time. It distressed my soul; it clouded my thoughts. Every movement I made was directed by the string, as if it were a guide leading me to my heart’s unknown desires.

With every beat of my heart, it made me long for what was on the other side of the red string. I had never felt this with such intensity. Not with such… purpose. It made me smile in the worst possible way. When I got home, I finally gave into my curiosity, and ran to get the keys of the family car. Without telling my mom I was going out, I drove away following the bright string. I passed through beaches, malls, parks, mountains, and a construction site. It felt like I was trying to find my way out of a labyrinth. I kept driving and driving until it was late, and I had ten missed calls from my parents. I decided to explore on the weekend instead, since my efforts so far had been futile, but I was usually left with a tangled and disoriented brain. I kept trying after school or in my free time, but to no avail. Therefore, I gave up trying to look for the other side to my string. Even though I still felt its presence, I left it alone for a while. The days became a blur, but it always gave me a certain comfort to grab the line and take a breather without everyone around me. In the moments when you feel the world suffocating and dragging you through the mud, the few moments of peace you can obtain are small blessings. Three months passed without any new developments, and most of the "String Kids" either looked disappointed or tired. I guessed they hadn’t figured out anything yet. But then, I stumbled upon a girl and guy sitting across the hall. Guessing by their uniforms, the guy was a senior and the girl, a junior. He was the same guy that had given me an apologetic smile my first day with the string, but the girl I had never seen before; she seemed to be from a different school. They were both sitting together in the corner of a room working on something and holding hands. They wore twin smiles, and when I looked closely, I found that the red string tied them to each other. It looked like such an intimate moment that I froze up immediately. So it wasn’t a thing at the end of the string, but a person. My heart started beating a million times a minute. I was hyperventilating, and ran from that room as if I’d just seen a ghost. What could it mean? It meant there was another equally confused person on the other side. I started to smile. I could work with that.

After my last class ended, I started looking. Somehow I knew that this was important to my life and I was determined to find them. I was

not going to give up. So, I drove as far as I could in my car, and when it felt like it was holding me back, I ran. I ran with regret for all my past failures. I ran from all my problems and embarrassments. All my despair and hopelessness. All the hate I had bottled up. All the fears that distracted me from what was in front of me. Hell, I ran for my life. But the string just kept going and going. At one point, overtaken by exhaustion, I fell to my knees. Tears started to slide down my cheeks and I started to sob uncontrollably. I looked at my hands as if they were holding a blank map that led to a piece of my soul. I couldn’t keep doing this to myself; I was going to lose my sanity. It was a cruel game of questions without answers. I found my car and started driving back, tears falling with less intensity. I was going to school to get my books. Since I left in such a hurry, I had left everything there. When I arrived, my tears stopped, but my feelings intensified. Something was off. I retrieved my books and I saw the string leading up to the elementary school. I went there thinking it was probably nothing and that it would have been nice to walk those old halls again. My feelings kept growing, and I kept walking until I felt a tug on my finger. A tug that made me stumble towards the stairs leading to the second floor. I started to run. My feet dragged themselves in a sprint. I got to the third grade classroom hall and there he was. I was three feet away from him, all wild hair and puffy eyes, looking at him with bewilderment. The moment I started to take a breath he looked at me and slowly uncrossed his arms. We both looked down to our little finger and followed the red string that led to the person in front of us. He had light brown eyes and ruffled hair. He had a look of such relief that it made my breath catch. After looking at each other for a little bit, we quickly fell into an embrace that made up for all the longing I had felt. A puzzle piece was finally put in place. That’s when I realized that the string was shown to those stubborn enough not to find each other. We all have a string leading us to someone. It doesn’t have to be a romantic relationship, but it is someone who’ll be an important part of our story. Some people just need a little push to find that person, therefore they are shown a red string of fate as a gift from God knows who. A way for them to open their eyes and take that first step. By: Alejandra Castro