Cornflower
In the afternoon setting sun, she ran. She ran on the sand that stuck between her toes, racing against the salty air of the sea so well known for. The smell of sea salt in the mid-summer made her nose tingle somewhat. She liked the tingling feeling, the sand getting stuck between her toes, and most of all, the chase.
With the waves crashing softly against the seashore, licking the feet of the scampering, she giggled, softly at first, but as the atmosphere blossomed into something of a wish come true, it tickled her pink. She laughed, now louder than ever, louder than her childhood self ever laughed, louder and larger than life.
She looked back to her, a smile as wide as it could be. She loved to smile but not for something as selfish as smiling for something as large as the world or as small as herself. She smiled for her world, her everything, her forget-me-not.
She smiled for him.
She waved at him from the distance, still running backwards but this time, calling out to him, calling out his name. Hurry up, she said. Hurry up or I'll leave you behind! He was already hurrying up to her, not on a full sprint but playfully chasing after her. She didn't like the chase, she realized as she turned around and sped up her pace. She loved it, but it had to be him. She would not allow anyone else to chase her like he did.
The soles of her feet were getting extremely sore now. She winced from the pain as it bruised and cut, the saltwater that gently licked her feet, that was tickling her pink now turned into a painful sting. Yet, she ran on, him following her close behind.
I'll stop here, she thought to herself. I'll stop here, turn around and let him catch up to me. He will find my arms ready to welcome his embrace, for he is my world, my everything.
He is mine.
And so she did, turning back to him once more and opening her arms to him that said more than what words could ever portray. The sun that was setting seemed to have stopped its descent, as if it wanted to see this scene that spoke of longevity and eternality with its own blazing eyes.
And they embraced forevermore.
They laid in the salty foamy water, looking up in the setting sky watching the first stars cover the canvas of pink hue. Everything was perfect, everything is as it should be. This would close out a chapter of their lives and signal the beginning of a new one. A new chapter of love, tranquility and hope.
It should...
"Hey," the girl said to the boy while turning her head the side, facing him, "I really... missed you."
He turned his head to his side, facing her as well. She knew he was going to say 'me too' to her, so she waited while smiling warmly.
Yet, the words never came from his lips. Instead, she was answered by a slightly cold and anxious look from him. Is something wrong? She thought as she met his gaze. Yes, there was something wrong. It shouldn't be like this...
He broke his gaze away from her and stood up, drops of sea water dripped from his clothes and the back of his hair. For some reason, she was suddenly afraid. What she was afraid of, she could not say, could not imagine or could not comprehend.
"We need to talk," was all he said.
Her heart leapt in her chest. She stood up at his side but never betraying her eyes from him. I wonder what he wants to talk about, she thought.
He turned around to face her very slowly and very intimidatingly. When their eyes met again, she saw not him, but a stranger whose eyes said was alone, whose posture said was despondent and whose lips was without cheerful words.
This is not the man I love, she thought.
"We've known each other for five years," he started, one of his hands in his pocket and the other clutched tightly to his side. "And I've been away from you for a year now."
Her breathing became rapid and shallow, her throat clenched her tightly and her heart betrayed her beats. It had always beat for joy, which was for him. Now it was beating for her, for fear. She tried to ask what he was trying to say but her words were caught somewhere inside her. She could say nothing.
"I'm sorry but... this is as hard for me as it is for you," he said in a tone she never heard him speak in, it was monotone, unregretful and dead to her. Suddenly, he pulled a cornflower from his pocket, like a magic trick. She finally averted her gaze away from the stranger's eyes and glanced at the flower.
"You do know what this means, right?" The boy questioned and she couldn't deny it. She knew what the flower symbolized, represented.
Her eyes started to well up with tears and it was not because of the salty air from the sea.
In ancient folklore, young men would wear cornflowers as a sign of their love for the ones who gave it to them. It symbolized something beautiful in one's eyes but it also symbolized travesty in another form. Should the flower wither too quickly, it was a sign that the man's love was unrequited.
What the boy held was a withered bloom.
"No..." she whimpered while backing away from him. She had been lied to, deceived all this time. He never loved me, she thought as the boy's eyes turned into beautiful cornflowers that bloomed and died in a span of seconds, withering away to dust in the golden sand.
She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, wiping away the tears and the imagery that she thought impossible. When she opened them, she saw herself not on a sandy beach but in a field of cornflowers. The field spanned as far as the eye could see and every cornflower that existed in this space bloomed and died, then another took its place continuing the cycle of betrayal and eternal despair. The blue depth was threatening to swallow her life whole.
Her feet froze, her emotions a collective mess and her heart a broken object of her own despair. There was nothing left in this world for her. He was all she had and now her despair was all that was left of her.
Something called out to her, something warm and fuzzy. It was a comforting sound, like an orchestra filled with beautiful notes of choir and violin. I would never do that to you, the voice reassured her. Open your eyes. See what is in front of you. She saw what was in front of her.
A lone tulip shone bright red in the darkest of the blue death.
She ran towards it, as fast as she could. Blue ethereal hands from the birthing and withering cornflowers grabbed at her legs, trying to pull her away from true love, hope and loyalty. The closer she got, the more hands that tried to grab her and pull her away, yet she avoided all with flawless execution. It was the least she could do for her everything.
Now inches away, she dashed for the tulip that beckoned her but was stopped in her tracks. A blue hand grabbed at her ankle and tightened its grip. She tried to break free but found herself too weak to do so. More blue hands grabbed at her, dragging her away from the promised hope.
When her blood ran cold with the blue, she closed her eyes and braced for anguish when suddenly a red hand, less ethereal and more life emerged from the tulip and gently touched her head. There was a brief moment of absolute warmth she never thought she could desire more until the ground beneath her vanished and she fell in pitch blackness. After what felt like eons, there was a flash of bright white and nothing...
The girl woke up screaming and flailing. She was sweating bullets and breathing hard as if she had run a marathon twice. She checked the time; it was four in the morning. In a panic, she unlocked her phone and scrolled through favorite contacts until she found what she was looking for.
She immediately called him.
The line rang twice until she heard him finally pick up. "Tora," he said in a worried tone, "It's four in the morning there. What's wrong? Did something happen?"
In the dream, when she cried, she cried of the horror that was him leaving her forever. Now she's crying to hear his concerned voice that she knew so well, that would never hint or suggest leaving her. "Sorry, Micha" she said while crying audibly, "I just wanted to hear your voice."
There was a pause from him for a moment, but then he said, "A bad dream?"
"Very," she enunciated. "I miss you."
"Me too."
Those words. Those were the words she wanted to hear. She couldn't hear them in the dream but what was a dream to reality? In this case, her dream meant nothing. What she heard now was everything to her.
"Don't worry, Tora," he said, "remember what I gave you when I first proposed to you?"
"Yeah," she replied.
"My love for you is exactly what that flower symbolizes. I'm never leaving you. I promise."
She reached at her side and plucked out one of the tulips she had grown from the one he gave her and pressed it close against her chest.
"Hurry up and come home," she said. The tears wouldn't stop.
"Yeah, wait for me."
