Piece by Piece

Piece by piece I fell far from the tree

Piece by Piece

Piece by piece I fell far from the tree

"Piece by piece I fell far from the tree

I will never leave her like you left me"

Soon. The Oxford English Dictionary has three separate definitions for this particular word. As an adverb, soon means "within a short time, before long, quickly; (in early use) without delay, forthwith, straightway". As an adjective, soon means "taking place, coming about, happening, etc., soon or quickly; early, speedy". And as a noun, soon describes "the near future". All of these definitions have one teeny tiny detail in common: the actual time span of soon is never specified.

Soon. One word. Four letters. Not really your typical four-letter word, but to Maya Hart it was certainly becoming one. This particular word had been playing over and over again in the girl's mind ever since their faithful trip to the Mount Sun Lodge and had provided her with more than a few sleepless nights.

Soon. Who knew that such a cute little word could stir up so much havoc in one fifteen-year-old teenager? Maya surely hadn't. She and Josh hadn't been able to talk, just the two of them, ever since the ski lodge. Both of them were busy with school and the wedding preparations. And, to be honest, this whole not knowing was driving Maya insane.

Soon. What in God's name did it mean? But, of course, the brown-haired boy had chosen those exact two weeks to spend much less time at the Matthews' apartment than the whole summer before. He and Maya texted a lot, but this wasn't something the girl wanted to discuss over the phone.

Soon. Well, apparently – at least according to Josh – it was an amount of time that was at least 12 days. Because that's how long it had been since their little weekend trip.

Soon. Maya had had a long and animated discussion with Farkle about the exact definition of the little word – which had also been when they had looked it up in the OED. They hadn't been able to come to a satisfying conclusion, but had succeeded in amusing Riley who had been seated in between the two of them during the entire discussion.

Soon. Well, there was one thing that was coming up soon: Katy and Shawn's wedding. It was this particular weekend – two weeks after that faithful trip to the Mount Sun Lodge. Maya had made up her mind: she was going to enjoy seeing her mom and Shawn get married and afterwards she would talk to Josh. After all, he was one of the groomsmen, so he had to be there. She was determined to find out what exactly he had meant sometime this weekend. And that's what Maya called soon!

________________________________________________________________________________

To say that the Matthews household was in a complete frenzy would have to be an understatement. It was early morning, the day of the big wedding. The women had all spent the night at the Matthews' while the men had stayed at the new apartment Shawn and Katy had rented. It was only down the street from the Matthews' place and Shawn, Katy and Maya would move in there after the lovebirds' return from their honeymoon. Maya was sad to be leaving their old apartment – it held a lot of memories for the girl – but it would have been too cramped with the three of them living there. At the new place, Maya would have a big, beautiful room with a bay window of her own – that small detail was what had really sealed the deal – and there would even be enough space for another one or two little Hunters to come along some time in the future. Maya had always wanted to be a big sister and, even though there had been no talk of it between Shawn and Katy – at least none that Maya was aware of – ... well, a girl could always dream, couldn't she?