Ruins of Autumn

67• Do You Belong To Me?

    The crash of something on the window of her room startled Anila with her breath held in fear, and she got up to see what it was. She placed the palm of her right hand on the bed and looked away, but didn't notice anything unusual that could help her understand.
 
    It had probably been a bird, she hypothesised, so as not to kill her mind any longer, and she turned her eyes more tired from sleep than relaxed by it towards the locked door.
 
    Visara's request to wake up echoed in her head because someone very important to her, according to her sister, had come to meet her, and then Visara's cry took place in her memory.
 
    Maybe it was a dream. Who could have come? Anila considered very important only Sidoreli and Brunilda, apart from her parents and Visara, and she didn't believe that one of them had come to see her. In Sidoreli's life story, she had ended her role as the ex-girlfriend, who had played with him, while in the second one, as the false friend, who had abandoned Brunilda for a man.
 
    It must have been a dream. How could Visara have entered Anila's room when the latter had all the keys?
 
    She took the black hair tie and tied her hair carelessly behind her head, removed the blanket, and with the weight of her body weakened significantly, but which she felt even heavier, she put on the white slippers, took the key from under the pillow, left the knife there, and headed towards the door to open it.
 
    In the corridor, she heard Visara singing in the bathroom. Anila's knocking twice interrupted her.
 
    "Visara."
 
    "Go to the living room," she said immediately. "I'm coming."
 
    Anila sighed and walked slowly towards the living room.
 
    The person sitting on the couch, wearing a white shirt and classic black trousers, and watching TV opened Anila's eyes more to the chastisement, that at that moment she wasn't dreaming, and entered with the same state of shock in the living room.
 
    Brunilda instantly stood up as if someone had just pushed her, and, afraid that Anila would throw a bottle in the air at her head, by shouting at her where she had found the courage to go to her house, she noticed the deep difference in her; all the bright light she once reflected had now faded, and Anila looked like a survivor of depression.
 
    Anila let the colour of her eyes shine more brightly from the tears, the latter falling free across her face until they dried like the burning of the fallen comets in the Earth's atmosphere, her feet to walk with quick steps towards Brunilda, and her arms to embrace her without her permission first.
 
    "Ida." She cried more when Brunilda returned the hug, felt again the comfort offered only by her closest friend, and hugged her tightly, refusing to let her go.
 
    Brunilda rested her head on Anila's shoulder and closed her eyes to fully feel all the peace that she had been missing in all those years from the ruin of their friendship and that Anila still loved her.
 
    "Ida, I'm so sorry." She broke away from her and used the backs of her thumbs to wipe the unshed tears from her thin face with prominent cheekbones. "I thought I was helping you for the better, trying to change you; I didn't notice that it was happening the opposite."
 
    "I'm sorry too. I was wrong," Brunilda wiped away her tears. "I was constantly complaining and looking at the negative side of things, and I never showed gratitude for your efforts. No matter how right you are, if you don't know how to use that advantage, you're lost."
 
    Anila kissed her on the right cheek and hugged her again. Brunilda had had the confrontation that Anila should have had a long time ago and had been forced to undergo all that suffering to understand the mistake made about her.
 
    Visara sighed deeply, relieved, when she entered the living room and saw them embracing. She put her hand on her chest and raised her head as if to say, 'Finally!'
 
    Brunilda chuckled at the expression on her face and stepped away from the smiling Anila as well.
 
    Visara took the cake from the fridge along with two forks and walked over to them.
 
    "And now, with the power given to me itself, I declare you best friends forever." She handed the dessert to both of them, and they laughed. "You can eat cake, and never end your friendship again."
 
    Anila happily took the fork from her side and tried the forest fruit cake.
 
    "How about I put a ration for each on your plates and we watch a movie together?" Visara offered.
 
    "Let's eat in my room," Anila asked Brunilda, and she agreed immediately.
 
    "Okay, I'm bringing the plates there, then." Visara watched them as they left the living room side by side and went to Anila's room.
 
    The friendship between them had always inspired her to have one like that herself, but she hadn't been able to have it even with her sister. Anila considered Brunilda to be her older sister. She was safe and happy in her presence.
 
    "This is my room," Anila showed around like a girl her newly bought doll to her best friend. "You saw it when you came a few hours ago. I thought that was a dream, because I usually lock the door when I sleep, and only I have the keys."
 
    "Visara told me that she had made two copies of them and checks on you often, when you're asleep, to make sure that you're okay.
 
    Anila bent her lips lightly, feeling good about the importance that her sister and her love gave her, but her conscience also criticised her for worrying Visara that much and forcing her to take such a measure.
 
    "Your room is so cool. I like the colours." Brunilda smiled at the combination of the soft dark blue colour of the walls with the white wardrobe, the desk with the shelf of the same colour next to the bed, the black bedside table, and the sweet feeling of walking on the warm parquet walnut colour.
 
    "Where do you want us to sit?"
 
    "Wherever you want," Brunilda smiled at her.
 
    "Tell me, honestly," asked Anila. "I don't mind at all, and I don't think that you're suggesting the wrong place." She read the fear in her eyes—that she would be judged for whatever opinion she gave.
 
    "On the bed," Brunilda said, a little more relaxed, and Anila led her, sitting at his head.
 
    "Here you go, girls," Visara brought the two dishes onto a wooden tray.
 
    "Thank you," Brunilda waited until she closed the door, and she was alone with Anila. "Visara texted me yesterday on Instagram. She asked me to meet today, and we talked about you. She said you weren't well at all, and she didn't know what to do."
 
    "I have upset her a lot." Anila felt rather guilty because she hadn't tried hard enough to fix that mistake.
 
    "Anila, I can't describe how sad I felt when I found out about Amarildo."
 
    His sister hardened her face and squinted her judgmental eyes with hatred.
 
    "Don't feel anymore!" she commanded mercilessly, and Brunilda didn't even think about going against her with that deep, soul-piercing look on herself.
 
    "OK," she understood that Anila had a reason for saying that, and she had to trust her decision. "Visara asked me to talk to you because maybe you would get better," she changed the subject to end the silence in the room. "I have wanted to come long ago and ask for your forgiveness, but I didn't think I deserved it since I said bad and unfair things about Blerimi. When I went home that day and thought about the accusations that I had thrown against him, I thought to myself that I had gotten out of line and had talked nonsense; no, he looks like a bad person; no, I have this feeling; no, that feeling... illogical. If all people were based only on feelings and not on rationality, the world would possibly not exist at all now. I should have given him a chance."
 
    "You were right about him." Anila couldn't look her in the eye when she accepted that fact, and Brunilda looked at her sadly. "I have thought, too, about coming and meeting you, but it didn't seem fair after all those words I said to you. Trust me. I have felt them so many times on myself."
 
    "I believe you," Brunilda said immediately. "I know that you were influenced by Blerimi, and I pushed you too; that's why you said those words. I saw on TV news of his death in America and the wounding of his wife. I knew that woman. I have shared an apartment with her."
 
    "When?" Anila was not able to create any hypotheses on how the events had flowed to reach that point.
 
    "Three years ago. She had just divorced from her husband, Albion Huba, and was looking for a house to rent."
 
    Albion...