Escaping Our Names

Night Songbirds

Lila loved the rain. She loved how the sky grew dark and the air smelled clean and empty. She liked the cool breeze on her skin. Rainy days had always put her in a better mood. She didn't particularly hate warm weather, it felt soft and nice on her skin for awhile, but after a few minutes, it was suffocating, she felt like her she couldn't breathe. She felt like there was a thick heavy wool blanket on top of her that she couldn't find the end of and escape. So, Lila loved the rain, and she loved it now, as she sat alone on her front porch. She took in a long breath and sighed. She had her headphones on and she was lost in her music and the high of the rain smell. It was dusk, which was also Lila's favorite time of day. When she felt most herself. So to say, it was Lila's moment of being. She always daydreamed about her future. She loved to think about what will happen and she constantly has to remind herself to pay attention to what is going on in front of her. Although it is what she likes to do, daydreaming has caught her in its own trap. She had realized herself that she barely pays attention to the now and how it effects her life, her grades, and her relationships. Even now, she was so lost she didn't realize that in her moment of being, that her living of now was to get more interesting than her living of the future.

Lila was staring at the flowers in an old, cracked pot that seemed to glow with vibrancy from the on-going pour, when a boy walking on the sidewalk slipped and fell on his behind. Lila' eyes flicked up at the sudden movement, and pulled out one of her headphones. The boy had cussed softly, as he sat there, shaking out his hair. Lila wasn't sure if she should get up to help him or not. He seemed fine, but she didn't want to be seen as rude. Without her help, the boy stood up and wiped off his pants as much as he could. He looked up at Lila, who sitting straight up on the edge of her porch and smiled.

"Are you okay?" Lila finally asked. The boy nodded. He pulled up his hood.

"Yeah, sorry for the ass print on the sidewalk. I wasn't paying much attention to where I was walking I guess." The boy swung his own pair of headphones out in front of him, gesturing to how he was caught up in whatever he was listening to. Lila smiled at him, lifting up the ear bud in her hand too.

"I love the rain, but I don't think it likes me," the boy carried on the conversation. Lila looked at the soaked boy standing fifteen feet away from her in the rain.

"Where are you headed?" she called out to him.

"That's the thing isn't it? I'm trying to get out of my head." Lila stared at him, then she gestured him to come over to her.

"You can sit over here if you want to get out of the storm. Or you can stand there," she shrugged. The boy smiled at her fondly and made his way up to her. He sat to her left and pulled off his hood.

"Nice hoodie," he said. She looked down to what she was wearing. She had zipped on a black jacket that morning before school and kept it on all day. It was her favorite jacket.

The boy took his own jacket's white strings and pulled on them. Lila realized they were wearing the exact same jacket. He laughed softly.

"What's your name?" Lila asked him, pulling up her legs to her chest.

"Well, it's not Dave, or Richard. Those are horrible names to be honest. No offence to the Daves and Richards of the world. I feel like if your name doesn't have a meaning behind it, it's kind of pointless. Sure Richard can be named after his grandfather, but who was his grandfather named after? What did his name mean?"

"Okay, not Dave," Lila laid her head on her knees and looked at the boy sideways, "What is the meaning of your name?"

The boy grinned, "I'm probably named after a morning songbird."

"You seem familiar. Do you go to the high school?"

"Yeah, I mean I'm kind of new to town, but yeah I go the high school up the street."

Lila stared sideways at the boy with light hair and light eyes. She said nothing.

"Do you like stories?" the boy asked. She nodded.

"May I tell you one? Or am I being creepy?"

"Well, you are pretty weird Not Dave," Lila said.

"You seem weird and pretty yourself, Rain Girl." Lila tried to hide her smile.

"Anyway. I'm going to tell you this story I came up with myself. "

"Okay."

"There was boy who had lost his mother at a young age and felt lonely everyday for years. He thought he would feel this way forever, he thought that the night was killing him slowly..."

The boy brought his knees up to his chest too, and rested his chin on them. He gazed off in the distance.

"He felt like the night was darkness pulling him under and under, but one night the boy had an epiphany. The night wasn't darkness, it was light." The front door opened loudly, and the boy jumped. It was Lila's mother.

"Lila, you should come on inside now, it's dark outside," she said, looking from her daughter to the boy. "Lila, who's this?"

Lila stood up the same time the boy did.

"Oh, this is..." she trailed off remembering that she hadn't learned of the boy's name.

"I'm Larken, sorry I was walking by and then somehow Lila and I were in the middle of an engaging conversation about rain and birds. I was on my way home anyway. I hope you have a goodnight." The boy turned form Lila's mom to Lila herself.

"Thank you for our extremely entertaining discussion." Larken bowed to Lila without breaking eye contact. He winked, then pounced off the porch. Lightening shot throughout the sky and thunder sounded like the bass drum in Lila's chest. She felt excitedly nervous. She turned to her mom after watching the dark figure disappear in the night.

"Who was that?" Lila's mom asked.

"Some guy from school," Lila said, shrugging. Lila's mother smiled.

"I don't know if that's all he is. Honey, you're blushing." She laughed and Lila followed her back into the house, looking at ground embarrassed.