1066 All Stars

The caveman woke one day and wandered out of his cave. What was this brave new world around him?

He walked and walked until he was very far from home. He had no idea where he was but it was all very exciting.

He came across a market place, then a town. Here he stopped and lived with the locals for a time. He made friends, some very good friends. Yet he always felt on the outside, like a plus one invited to someone else’s party. He was frightened to get close in case he got hurt. What if they didn’t like him as much as he liked them? That would be humiliating, he could not handle the rejection. And so despite being surrounded by people, he felt very much alone.

After a while, he became tired of the hustle and the bustle and the noise. He grew tired of feeling sad. He wanted to go home.

It took him a long time to find the way and when he eventually got back to his cave, tired and miserable, he vowed never to leave again. He was happy here where life was simple and quiet.

Each day he got up and walked around his little patch of land, never straying any further. Occasionally his friends from the town would stop by and ask him to join them. He resisted, assuring them he was happy in his little cave. They wouldn’t miss him anyway, would they?. After a while, they stopped asking.

Eventually the pathways he had once wandered down grew over from lack of use. No-one came to see him. It seemed that no-one knew he was there. He spent every day all alone.

Soon, he started to feel sad. He didn’t understand at first. This is what he had wanted, a simpler, quieter life. But he began to understand; he was lonely.

But what could he do? The pathways were long since gone, he couldn’t find them anymore. And no-one would be looking for him, he had pushed them all away. They wouldn’t want him.

That night, he was digging around at the back of his cave when he noticed a small chink of light. Looking closer, he noticed part of the wall was loose. He pushed and pulled until eventually the rock broke free and he walked out into the light.

In front of him was a new path. It went the opposite way to the last one. It took him a few days to think it over but eventually he set off along the new pathway. He wasn’t sure where it led and he wasn’t sure he would like it when he got there. But he promised himself he would try.