He still remembered her; sometimes he still heard her voice on the wind. They had been so young, so naïve. The world around them had been a beautiful enigma that left them constantly contemplating; rainbows and unicorns and vampires and werewolves, all a bunch of childish fantasies that kept their attention during those long drawn out days.
Struggling had been nothing new to either of them and they had used each other as a distraction from all the hurt and pain that came with the immediate problems that neither of them had had any control over. Those days, no matter how daunting, had been, contradictorily, wonderful in their entirety. She had been an angel in his hell. She had been a beckon that called to him in the almost infinite darkness that had tried to consume him.
Remembering her now left a smile on his face. At the time she had been his everything. They had been two hungry kids...searching for sustenance, searching for something to fill not only their empty stomachs but their hearts as well.
Reminiscing back on it all only brought about sad, yet fond thoughts of joyful laughter and love filled sentiments.
She was, after all, the only thing that had kept him sane during a time when all had seemed lost to him. She had been the Polaris to his broken compass and he had never truly gotten the chance to thank her.
How quickly life seemed to pass you by and leave you completely dumbfounded at the tragedies it pours in your wake. Side stepping obstacles and jumping over hurdles could drain a man of his ability to see the light in things. The struggles of life could easily lead any man, faint of heart or sound of mind, down a dark path of nothingness.
And still, regardless of those things, she had been his guide through the winding, twisting and thorny paths of his early life. She had been his princess in shinning dirt covered overalls. She had been his mud pie baker, the Sancho Panza to his Don Quixote, the dragon to his imaginary tales of adventures in magical lands of mischief and knighthood.
But most of all, though he had never had the courage to tell her, she had been the Juliet to his Romeo. She had been, no matter how cliché or mushy, the chocolate chip cookie to his milk.
She had been his first love and as far he had experienced life, his only love. No one had, or ever seemed that they could, compare to her.
Her laughter still rung in his ears to this day, her voice, soft and sweet, still clung to his memories with tight fists. He was an old man now, much older than he cared to admit. But his heart, yes, his heart was young.
His heart was a part of him that would never age, much like his memories. In his memories he would forever be frolicking through the tall, insect filled grass, holding on tightly to the hand of the very girl who had meant the world to him and still did.
He smiled to himself. Love was a difficult thing to decipher. Love was a difficult thing to put into words. It could be described as something as fickle as beauty or as trivial as a smile. But for him, love was a thought, a distant image in the back of his mind that haunted him constantly.
He looked up at the sun as it descended into the horizon, its color a light misty array of yellows, oranges and reds.
He remembered those long days, much like today; they had regularly sat together, regardless of the swiveling heat around them, and watched the sun on its departure. She had always been so eager, so full of energy and optimism, telling him, with a smile on her face, that the next day would be much brighter than the last.
Her smile, perfectly white, adorned teeth that had been crooked and uneven, contrasting with her dark brown skin, had left an impression on him unlike any other. Her wild mane of kinky, wool like curls had been a constant obsession to him. He had longed to run his hands through her hair but, of course, he had never drudged up the courage to do so.
He had resigned himself to merely be thankful for her presence in his life and the ability to just be near her.
Her hands had been soft...warm. Her tight embraces after a long, hard day had been all he longed for, promising understanding and empathy when nothing else would.
He had thought himself the one who had needed his empty heart filled; he had thought himself the hungriest child on earth. Hungry for affection, love, attention; his wants and needs had far out shadowed hers. How wrong he had...She had been everything he had thought he needed.
She had been his provider of sustenance, energy...dare he say, life force, but what had he been to her?
That, still today, remained a question that he could not answer. They had tried to hide from the world, constantly playing a repetitive game of hide and seek that never seemed to accomplish nor hide anything.
His cards had all been out on the table, laid in the dirt beneath her feet. He had been like a baby bird, fallen from his nest and she had been his savior, his soft hearted human with kind eyes and gentle hands. His game of hide seek from the world had ceased upon meeting her, loving her, holding her...and yet it had started all over again at knowing he loved her so.
But her world had seemingly been crumpling around her and he had never known. He had been so busy stuck on his hunger, his game, his need...that hers had gone unseen.
She had been playing the same game but with so much more skill.
She had been filled with the same hunger but it had been so much worse. She had had many of the same needs but they had consumed her so much quicker.
She had slipped right through his fingers, like water droplets slipping through the cracks of melted ice cubes.
Leaving him cold and confused in a world filled with skin curling heat.
She had needed him to fulfill his needs and yet he had passed her by. He had not seen her cries for help nor had he acknowledged them. He had thought her perfect in his eyes. But no one was perfect. She had been a shining star in his cosmos and he had been a dying light, a black hole that sucked her dry...leaving nothing behind.
And now as he sat and thought back on it all, he regretted it. He regretted loving her. He regretted ever meeting her...because he had destroyed her. He had eaten every last ounce of energy from her, draining her, ultimately destroying her.
The love he had felt for her had been a love unworthy of her purity, her kindness, her existence.
He sighed, his thoughts, as always, taking a turn for the worst.
"This is where you were! We were searching everywhere for you!" The nurse, dressed in white, her hair curled tightly upon her head, said as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, "You mustn't continue to run off like this."
He stayed silent, his eyes focused on the tall unfamiliar plants littered across the garden. As the nurse led him inside she smiled at him kindly, "Are you hungry?"
Yes, he was and it seemed that he always would be.
YOU ARE READING
Two Hungry Kids Playing Hide and Seek
Short Story"Are you hungry?" She asked. Yes, and it seemed that he always would be. ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()() He remembered her. They had both been starving for affection, attention, and love. And yet she had filled all of his needs without fault. But w...
