𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉 [english]

6.

"Since I was a child, I loved this sport..." Matthew began to tell about another tattoo that Sofía had been curious about: a basketball.

Sofia loved listening to him, in addition to being her friend she liked to live those experiences that she didn't count on. But the truth is that until now some of Matthew's stories were related to a memory that Sofia already had.

She wanted to hear those stories because she was obviously intrigued and curious, but she also thought it might be therapeutic for her in some way. And in part it turned out that way; they made her think and reflect, thank even more each day and the gift of God she had received. Although that didn't prevent some memories, most of them filled with loneliness, from oppressing her chest with anguish.

"My teammates were the best! We got along very well…"

And there went another memory of loneliness.

Her mind reproduced the image of a large number of children playing in the courtyard of the orphanage. They ran dribbling a dirty basketball, dunking it into a bucket that they hung on a wall sometimes, and other times into a hoop they had made themselves.

Sofía always remembered herself apart from all that. The truth was that her childhood had not been entirely easy. Being alone, without parents, siblings or friends was difficult, even though she had partly chosen that loneliness.

She was a little girl trying to process that she was being afflicted with a serious illness that would never leave her; she didn't want worried friends, she didn't want to risk making a friend and being separated. If there is no one I miss, then no one will miss me, that was like her philosophy of life.

"I remember when we won our first game… It was great, we were very small. I dunked once in that game." Matthew said, pretending to be smug, which made Sofía laugh.

She still couldn't concentrate on Matthew's experiences that day. Suddenly she felt her eyes sting, and she knew that she had to hold back crying so as not to end up doing it in front of him.

Since she had started to form that kind of friendship with Matthew, she believed that her way of thinking had changed; I don't have to be alone.

But when she was at that moment, finding herself on the verge of crying and remembering her lonely moments in the orphanage, she realized that it would have been better if she had followed a path of solitude.

"... Once we even went to play in another city, we really did well. I think that was also what made me interested in traveling".

If there is no one I miss, then no one will miss me. Now that phrase meaning almost nothing. Sofía was going to miss Matthew, she knew he would miss her too, and it disturbed her to think how she would tell him that there would come a day when she would leave and that she would never come back.