Dawn Of Jaide

A Journey Home (Part 1)

In her room, veiled by the twilight softness, Jaide starts collecting the tools carefully for her journey. Each is carefully considered almost as if pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fell into place to create a vision known only to her. She looks at the flask of water, judges its need versus the weight it adds on top of her load, and lets it be. The flashlight is solid, light cutting through the cowl of the night. Her sweater, filled with memories, promises warmth against the chills. And, finally, in a lighter state of affairs, she would throw in a pack of chips.

With her backpack filled with essentials and tokens of comfort, she retreats to her bed for one last embrace of its familiar solace. Her fingers find her phone, lighting up the room with the vibrant colors of a cherished memory. A photograph, shows Jaide surrounded by the joy and camaraderie of friends, under the protective canopy of trees. The vivid memory, once alive with laughter, now echoes a haunting solitude in her dimly lit room.

But the picture pained even deeper in the silence. Her eyes glazed with tears and breathing in the load of the choice and silent goodbyes that whispered out of it, the call of the distant horizons. Her breath out, though quiet, feels like a tremor in the fabric of her world.

She powered down the phone and, with its blank screen, let darkness overwhelm the room till it was just patches and the glow of the moon at the window. Jaide hung in that serene darkness, at the juncture of memory and possibility, between the known world and the unknown.

***

The moon drips its light on the house, silver in shadows that frighten the realness away. Further in the distance is an old willow tree, stirring. Their hearts racing, Quentin and Ezra found relief in the thick foliage of a shrub not far off, flitting glimpses of the house.

"Quentin, this isn't right. Spying on Jaide? She's our friend," he says, his voice low but rife with concern.

"Ezra, this isn't about right or wrong now," Quentin answers firmly, his expression unwavering. "We're here to make sure she doesn't do something stupid."

Ezra shifts uncomfortably, "But there's a line between protection and invasion. Which side are we on?"

Quentin sighs, "We are on the side of our friend, and sometimes that means crossing the line."

Light came on inside the house, and they looked at it. In the window between pretty lace curtains, they saw Gwen and her hair, the color of light brown threads, reflecting in the light of the room. Her fingers danced along the top of the old leather-bound book that lay open in her lap.

Quentin narrows his eyes, "Gwen, she's here."

Ezra raises an eyebrow, "Did we believe for a second she wasn't? "

Quentin with a smirk on his face says, " I guess not."

Fiery eyes dart all of a sudden in their direction, and a face betrays, marked with surprise. Both Quentin and Ezra duck, and their loud resounding hearts fill up the silent night.

Ezra, catching his breath, mutters, "Did she see us?"

Quentin, his fingers digging into the dirt beneath, replies, "I hope not."

They did so, pondering their next move, when they were interrupted by a plaintive sound and the creak of a door opening. It was Jaide. The moonlight painted her face bold and strong, her locs like a midnight waterfall against that silver light. On her frame is a backpack, while she clutches a bat in her hand. Gwen eyes the bat, chuckling. Jaide is a little less proud and tells her, "Never know what we could run into."

Gwen says gracefully, "Are you sure you're ready for this, Jaide?"

Jaide, her voice firm yet filled with an underlying melancholy, responds, "It's now or never."

Gwen nodded, and one could not miss the weight this all carried, but the glee of it ran rampant in her eyes. Jaide hesitated, looking around to rest on a picture on the wall: a bright picture of her and her mother, smiling out from better days. With a voice choked with emotion, she whispers, "Goodbye, momma. I promise I'll make you proud."

At that, the two step into the night, leaving Quentin and Ezra with more questions than answers and a journey that promises to test the very fabric of their friendship.