Abigail | Putri Marin

Chapter 6

   That night, I couldn't sleep. Not being able to sleep happens to me more often, so it is not surprising that this happens. Usually, I'll stay up with Ruth and help her with her ideas and listen to her rambling, but tonight was one of the nights where she sleeps peacefully like an angel. I did not want to wake her up.

   I decided to go to the library and read some books. The library was built right next to the house as a place for the books because the house is already packed with other things. Our great-grandparents have given us stacks of books to read, that is not even the books Uncle Samuel and grandfather wrote and found over the years. But unlike Ruth, I had not read them all yet.

   That's why I'm here, in the middle of the night, inside the library reading books that I know won't help me sleep better. Sometimes I hate the fact that I can't sleep at night, I mean what can I do in 8 hours? And I know it is a bad habit, trust me I've received lectures about it. But recently, I've been enjoying staying up all night.

   The thought of having alone time seemed more comforting as I grew older. There's just more time and space to think and reminisce. It is very helpful to find ideas and creativity when you're alone in a room with a book and a pen. But tonight, instead of writing I'm enjoying someone else's art.

   I've already read all Uncle Samuel's books as there is only a little amount of it compared to the stack of books that were bequeathed to us, so I decided to read a new book tonight. I was never the one who flatters about love and my opposite gender since everyone around me I saw as family, but we do have books about love that I might as well read to see what's the big deal is. Back in the day, Uncle Samuel used to tell us that love was the most beautiful thing that could happen to you as he experience it himself.

   I picked this book titled 'Andy and Rosaline'. The book was relaxing to read but still had a lot of drama in it, exactly what I needed to keep me entertained. The book starts with a lonely royalty girl who wanted love. Her personality matches Ruth -Reduced the loneliness- she loves reading and will spend hours in the library after school, she loves writing but never let just anybody see it, sometimes it'll be her mother and some other times it would be one of the maids that she liked. Her name is Rosaline Wilson. One day she met this lonely boy who is not royalty, in the same library she went to and they got along with all their favorite books. His name is Andy Jones.

   They'll meet up in other places than the library, little coffee shops, by the beach, and their favorite secret area. One of them is this field by Rosaline's house, there's a tree where she loves reading books there under the shade protected from the sun. No one knows about that spot except her and she was planning for it to stay that way. Until she met Andy.

   As they grow up their bond became stronger as each moment passes and every one of them makes the best memories of their life. Both of them never felt this type of emotion, and no one knows if it's because they had no one until their encounter or they did indeed feel for each other's soul. Back then they were just children enjoying their childhood and Rosaline's Father was fine with it until Rosaline came to an age where she have to marry to be able to live. Back then women could not work to provide for themselves and her family which is something my family disagrees with, because of that Rosaline had to marry a wealthy man to have a fine life, royalty men if you may say.

   Rosaline's Father doesn't approve of Andy and they were separated the moment her father forces her to marry another royalty that she does not love. But as Rosaline tried to run away the day before her wedding to visit Andy in their favorite place where they had their first kiss, where they had fallen for each other, where they had shared the same passion, where they had planned their future, when they had their first dance under the rain, where they both talked about their days, where they both share writing ideas, and where they became them and no longer her and him. As she saw Andy in her sight she saw his big grin for the very last time before the sound of a gun shooting came to her ears.

   I gasped while I look at every sentence of that paragraph before moving to the next one, the one that will reveal it all. The tension was strong, adrenaline rushing through my veins as I move my eyesight to the next sentence preparing all my emotions. One of the most marvelous things about reading is this, the adrenaline, the tension, the curiosity, it felt like everything does not matter except to find the answers.

   Rosaline heard the sound of a gunshot, and there it is. Andy was now lying dead on the ground, blood all over his white shirt that he had worn the first time they met, his beautiful blue eyes become unalive, his soft skin as pale as the dead. Rosaline holds the love of her life in her arms while sobbing, misery, and anger filling her. Misery because she just lost the only person who made her feel alive despite her Mother who was now with Andy and anger at the person who would such a thing. She looked up to see her Father, as she curse under her breath.

   At the end of the story, Rosaline married the royalty man, and Father promises to give Andy a respectful funeral. Andy was an orphan and his only friend was Rosaline and this man who had taken care of him since he was a baby. That man came to his funeral and so do Rosaline. He was buried in the same place he died. The place that holds so much history.