You might be a little faded. You might be a little dusty. You might spend most of your days perched on a shelf, more decoration than adornment.
If you were a hat.
If you were a hat, you might get picked up occasionally. Spun around. Twirled – up one arm and down another, landing briefly in one perfect moment only to be swept away and tossed to the side as another distraction appears.
If you were a hat, you’d spend a lot of time in boxes or on a rack. Rest is important for the spirit. But there’s a line between solitude and abandonment and, although it’s a fairly thick line, you might not always be able to tell the difference. It’s hard to see the truth of it when truth fades into things just being the way they are.
If you were a hat, you’d be nice hat. There would be nothing casual about you. You might spend a lot of time alone, but there’s no reason that ever had to come up in company. You’d exist to impress and command just a little more attention than others around you. Not enough to be off-putting. Just enough to be hard to ignore.
If you were a hat, your best days would be the ones when you didn’t have to think at all about how you’re only a hat. About how your whole purpose is to make them look good. About how much they love you, right up to the end.
If you were a hat, your worst days would be the ones when being just a hat is all you could think about. About how you only get the special events when you secretly know you’re much better suited to the everyday. About exactly how much time you spend on the table making small talk with the still-smoking ashtray and watered-down drinks while they all go dancing.
Sometimes you think you’re a hat. You make a grand impression, dashing into excitement and leaping to the next joy before any of the electricity has a chance to dwindle. But electricity burns, and who’s going to catch you when that shock jolts you out of the bliss?
If you were a hat, all of this would be fine.
But you’re not.
I’m writing 31 days of short stories (or whatever these are). Click to see the master list.
M. Suzanne Terry 
This is gorgeous, and absolutely devastating. What a gift to have read it.
Thank you so much, Jae! I’m glad you liked it.
[…] * Penny, who is stumbling along in the most interesting way possible. * XKCD, which pretty much always makes me smile. * Post Secret, for breaking my heart weekly, in the best way possible. * The Coffee Snob, who wrote this gorgeous and devastating piece that might or might not be about a hat. […]