Two Benches

Behind the Lines

Initially inspired by the theme of location, this piece’s roadmap begins in the iconic city of New York City. Although it may sound silly, I myself have never been to New York and therefore, the imagery created in this piece of prose fiction is purely made up of all the classic stereotypes and landscapes. However, I wanted to build a piece around the two characters in the narrative to communicate the irony of being alone in a city that is renowned for its sheer scale. My favourite line of the piece “a stranger in the sense of someone partially known, but never explored”, aimed to capture both the isolation and the interconnectedness of humanity that peacefully coexists. Drawing from the concept of ‘sonder’, which captures the realisation that every person passing by is leading a life as intricate and rich as one’s own, this idea forms the cornerstone around which this story is built.