Fireflies

29

As the hummingbirds filled my ears, I spotted a couple of wrens flapping their wings and nesting from within the trees. A little hole had perched itself intact, letting me get a glimpse of one bird constantly leaning its head in all kinds of directions. I smiled, I was free here. They were free here.

The birds resembled the fireflies, fleeting wings that held so much power in their flight, in their chirps, in their flickering light. They were free, like me.

"Don't you think it's time for you to tell me about your plan?" Angie asked me, concern written all over her face.

I clasped both hands together and plodded on the bench at the empty park. It was a nice afternoon and as Angie followed along, we let the breeze kiss our skins, the cool blow reddening our cheeks and noses. It was starting to get cold, the seasons have been regularly unstable. Either the sun bred so much heat at midday, or the gloomy clouds came to mimic the frowned pieces of cotton that carried huge puddles of rain.

"I told you, I'm going, remember?" I replied in a low hush tone.

With a great sigh, Angie pursed her lips and then snorted. "I don't recall me having such a poor memory either, so tell me, what's your plan upon stepping into an unfamiliar soil?"

"Are you that interested?" I said, cheeks rising in glee.

"I am actually, now tell me, Claire Willows, what's your plan?"

I laughed. "I don't know, meet him I guess."

"Him? This memento guy you've been raving about since day freaking one? The very guy you just can't stop talking about? And how will you do that?" she asked again, her brows rising even more.

"I know what facility it is, Angie. The hospital. I know where it is."

She placed her hands on the side of her hips and looked at me dead in the eyes. "This is not the same thing as a googled map on the other side of the city, Claire. We're talking about Vancouver here. A place thousands of miles away."

I've grown unnerved myself and I don't know how it happened. Before I was so intimidated by Angie but now I could banter with her all day. We could be talking endlessly for hours or stay in one room but not talk for the same amount of time.

"Angie, I'll be fine. You know that too, right? I'm okay now. I am better. Why are you so against me going there?"

"I-I know that but I worry still, Claire. I'm sorry," Angie said, grumbling.

"I'm sorry too, Angie. But I somehow wish you would come with me."

Her expression of curiosity turned into a slight solemn one, which meant that the answer had always been the same even from the start.

"Remember when you asked me why I resonated so much with you? Why it was never really difficult for me to get to know you, a girl who had been visibly broken?"

"I think I do, just a little bit," I motioned a sheepish smile.

"I told you that your eyes reminded me of someone, that one person I wish to protect with all my heart."

I watched her in an eased motion but confusion grew, the mystery heightened.

"But you didn't tell me who it was, who is this person?"

"My brother, " Angie swallowed a lump in her throat and wiped her forming tears. "The one I always wish to see when I go home."

"You have a brother?"

She shook her head at me in disbelief. "You didn't know? I thought I told you."

At last, the clinking sounds in my brain ignited no such recollection and so I lowered my head and scratched it in annoyance. "My memory seems just as vague as before, though it had been worse and I feel a bit better now. "