Echoes of Us

Nine

A couple of days had passed since Avery's death and Harrison had been spending his days in their house, wandering around the empty rooms and imagining her there.

He would walk into the kitchen and expect to see her standing over the stove top experimenting with a new recipe she had found.

But she wasn't there.

Sometimes he thought he could see her shadow at the edge of the door frame, as if she had just left the room, and he would run out after it, even though he knew in his mind that there was no possible way it could be Avery.

Harrison was in their room now, the place where the memories of her were the strongest, where scent still faintly clung to each and every object that lay in there.

He found himself walking towards her dresser, her perfumes, jewellery, and random receipts Avery had collected, still sat there as if waiting for her to come back.

Harrison picked up one of the receipts and smoothed it out in his hand, it was a normal grocery receipt but it, for some reason, made tears well up in his eyes. The normalcy of every day tasks seemed so far away now.

Setting the receipt down, his hand now hovered over the drawer of the dresser before he finally pulled it open.

Avery's neatly folded clothes stared back up at him. Sweaters she bundled up in when it was too cold, scarves she swore she was collecting for winter but really, had never actually worn.

Harrison reached into the drawer and pulled out one of her scarves, his fingers trailing over the crocheted wool, but it brought him no comfort, it only left a dull, hollow ache in his chest.

Folding the scarf and placing it back, his eyes landed on a leather bound book that had been tucked underneath the folded scarves.

As he picked it up and opened to the first page, he realised the book was Avery's diary. Her writing scrawled across the front page, an entry from 2008 when she was still in high school.

24 August 2008

Hi Diary!

Today was such a hectic day. When I got to school, Mrs. Omar was waiting for me on the stairs outside and she yelled at me to come see her in her classroom before school starts.

I followed her there and she started screaming saying one of the students had told her that I was bullying them! Can you believe that diary??

I asked who it was and she said she couldn't tell me but I knew she was talking about Emerson because when she walked into the class, she was giving me huge side eye so I went up to her and asked her if she had told Mrs. Omar I was bullying her and do you know what she said!!

She said it was because I didn't give her the photo of Jesse McCartney that I cut out of the GirlyPop magazine. WHY WOULD I GIVE IT TO HER??? IT'S MY MAGAZINE, IS SHE STUPID OR SOMETHING??

The diary entry went on and Harrison chuckled slightly as he shook his head and flipped through he diary, before stopping on another random page.

This time, it was dated 2017 and Avery's hand writing had changed.

13 June 2017

Hi Diary.

I met a guy in college. His name is Harrison Surland and he's studying engineering. He's so sweet and kind, and he has the nicest smile ever.