All in a touch.

One small moment can mean so much.

The girl had spent years waiting for that one moment, the brush of the hand or the accidental touch of a foot that meant she could convince herself he cared. Every year she would wait and wonder whether it would happen but it never did. She would always say, maybe next year or maybe the year after but soon, she realised, she would have to give up. She couldn’t spend her whole life waiting for him. Then one year it happened. As the clock struck 12 he reached out and held her hand. Her life was now complete.

A man would sit by her bedside for hours just holding her hand. He would hope for the one squeeze that would mean everything to him. Then, one day, as he was about to leave, he felt it. The old woman’s fingers twitched, such a small movement, but such a momentous occasion.

As she sat there crying she realised he was behind her. After storming out of the house he had returned. Cold and dripping from the rain, but it was him. She felt his fingers touch her shoulder and she turned to face him. In a few moments her life, smashed to pieces, had re-built itself. All in a touch.