Far Yet Close

My Gift

The light pink curtains covered the room. Pink light shone throughout the room. The room was spacious. There was a pink pendant light hanging above the room.

On the bed, Jewel moved uncomfortably, sweating, uttering incomprehensible words. The alarm rang. Jewel's eyes opened and the image of a girl with light brown curls smiling came into her mind. Jewel closed her eyes and switched off the alarm which showed 5 A.M.. She put her hands on her forehead. Jewel lifted the upper part of her body. A book called 'Finding Hope in the Bitter Reality' fell off her chest. Jewel took the book, went towards the bookshelf, paused for a moment looking at the book, and then kept the book on the bookshelf.

The photo frames of her parents on the walls lighted up her face, which were near the bookshelf. Jewel slapped both her cheeks and smiled. She brushed her teeth and bathed in the bathroom. After changing clothes, Jewel went skipping towards the kitchen.

"Hi Alexa, today you just have to help others with the preparation of your own food because the cooking for my parents and me is going to be done by none other than me," Jewel said, bowing down, with a playful presentation gesture.

"Your parents! They're finally back?" Alexa rejoiced, jumping up and down, holding Jewel's hand. After the initial excitement, she looked down. "So they want to be there when you officially quit as the CEO of Tetrahead. They're sure there when you need them the most."

"Yeah," Jewel said, putting on the cooking cap and apron from the shelf. "They're the best."

"So what will you cook for them?" Alexa asked, putting her hands on Jewel's shoulders.

"I'm going to make them bacon, toast, and fried eggs," Jewel said with a smile, poking on the hat of Alexa.

"Make the best food for them that they have not yet experienced in the world my girl," Alexa said.

"Sure will do," Jewel replied, holding eggs in her hand which she had gathered from the fridge.

After cooking, Jewel went to her study. She had not prepared a speech for the upcoming press meet. There was no need to prepare. The words were in her heart.

When Jewel was seven years old, she was dissatisfied with most of the things her friends bought to school. She mostly commented on the quality of their pen, books, and so on. Slowly, she started losing friends. Kids started to gossip about her and said that she was a show-off. Eventually, she started getting bullied.

One day, one of her bullies called her Cordefer. Jewel started physically fighting with her bullies and she got overpowered and heavily injured. Embarrassed, she ran out of school and went to her home since it was near.

Her Mom was in the garden and she was surprised and got sad when she saw Jewel. Her mom went and picked her up fast. Jewel suddenly started crying. Mom tried to calm her down. Mom and Jewel went inside their house and Mom put Jewel on the sofa in the living room and took the first aid kit from the drawer on the table next to them. Jewel's mom tended to Jewel's wounds while Jewel spent all the time crying. After that, Jewel's mom sat near her, still holding Jewel's shivering hands, Jewel's eyes had swollen from crying nonstop.

"What happened my dear?" Jewel's mom asked her.

As soon as Jewel's eyes met her mom's, Jewel looked down and continued crying.

"My... my... classmates called me Corfeder," Jewel sniffed.

"Corfeder?" Mom asked.

Jewel nodded.

Mom took Jewel's head into her hands.

"Cry as much as you want my child. Then tell me everything slowly," her mom told her.