I don’t regret aging, not entirely. They say it is a privilege to age, is it not? To watch your back bend against time and your face wrinkle with pride. Not being able to move. Not being able to speak without someone saying “what?” at least twice before you inevitably give up. Aging is just great. I wouldn’t change it for the world, really. 

I inched across the barren land, knees buckling from the pressure and cane in my right hand, pushing, leaning, carrying me onward. It was a strange land. Filled with peacocks, turtles, cranes, all chirping their sweet, incessant songs. Blossoming overgrown trees and white snow. It looked just like heaven should.

My mind moved faster than my body, closer and closer to the middle of the strange land, drawing me like a ship to a distant shore. Dying wasn’t bad, well, not as bad as I originally thought it would be. I was surrounded by close friends and family, who all wept and prayed and kissed my wrinkled hands. It was quick. This strange land is all that welcomed me. I knew there must be more. Where are all the people? 

After some time, could have been hours or days, I found the middle of the land. A fountain streamed lightly, trickling down and coating the pennies underneath it. I finally allowed my knees to give out. 

“Please,” I begged to the fountain. “Free me from this bodily torment. Where is my youthful body? The one I yearned and bled for everyday of my dying life. I was a free man then. Now, I remain chained, even in death.”

The fountain did not answer, but the pennies gleamed brighter, the light of their copper surface bouncing off the edges. A peacock pecked at the stone. 

“Must you taunt me, fountain of youth? Please, let me live again. I would do it all differently, I would. I wouldn’t take a single second for granted. I would visit my mother everyday and give a 20 to every homeless person I see. Please, let me live as if I begged to do it all over again.” 

But the fountain stood the same, and so did the man, who would remain on his broken knees for the rest of eternity.