Chapter Five
It was my second day with Wednesday and I have eight more remaining days with her.
I don’t want Wednesday to end.
I see her sitting on the grass and sticking her platinum colored head in the water.
I realized when I got to her that she was blowing soft whispers to the lake, sending ripples at its wake as paper boats float by. One of the paper boats flew farther away as she blew more secrets to the calm lake.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Sending letters to the lake.” She blew the last paper boat away and the water started to ripple in answer. She then sits up and turns to me.
“You know, they say that when you send a letter containing your wish to the lake, it would come true.”
“So, did any of your letters have been answered?” I asked and she giggled.
“Yes.” She smiles at me mischievously. “But I cannot tell you.”
We both watched the paper boats sail until they were too far away to be seen. The calm lake seems to carry them somewhere it would be read and answered. I noticed Papou lingering behind Wednesday, watching her as we talked about things. We talked about people we meet every day on the streets not knowing that maybe someday they’d be someone important to us, how the clouds are thin and thick, how the seasons change every year. But mostly we talked about life. Wednesday has an entire different version as to how she sees it and as to how she said it made me want to live it with her. She said she doesn’t want to live by and just watch people get along with their lives. She said she wanted to experience life through living it fully and not just getting by. She wanted to experience love and feel hurt at the same time. I told her that if you put too much of that love into one thing it would actually lead you to hurt. And hurt is one aspect in life that could get you broken. She agrees with my perception but in contradiction she says,
“You know you can only hate someone when you know you truly have loved them. All of us are entitled to get hurt. Hurt is just a part of life’s cycle. If you let yourself feel the wound, then pain would be no more but a scar. It would remind you of what you’ve been through but it would also remind you of how strong you’ve been to survive. It is better to feel every emotion in this world than die along with your body without feeling anything. At least when you die, you had this contentment in yourself that you have lived for something. For someone.”
Papou nods in agreement with her. I think it’s Wednesday’s superficial ingenuity when it comes to life that made me draw into her. And as the enormity of that strange feeling drove me deeper into her, I felt more and more anguish that my time with her is so short. Soon enough, if this ends, I’ll find myself getting too close to the sun and like Icarus I’d fall down from the sky.
As time passed by and my days with Wednesday had grown short I have learned to value every moment with her. I found myself loving her company and that had rung a certain alarm in my head. I fear that I’ll be looking for her after the ten days are gone. Numbers started to change on her wrist and I felt the heaviness of departing.
I never wanted to say goodbye to Wednesday.
“I can see ghosts.” I finally told her on our fifth day. There were only five more days left before goodbye.
We sat under our tree on that fine sunny day. We decided to call it ours since no one seems to want it anyway except us. The leaves now had change into color. It’s just a perfect sad reminder that our time together is running out.
I looked at her to find any signs that would make her runaway from me. Instead, she just stayed and she looked at me as if we were having a normal conversation.
“So, have you made any friends?” she asks.
I swallowed hard as I looked up at Papou who’s standing behind her. He gives me that lopsided smile that he does when he has something mischievous in mind.
“I have yet made only one friend.” I tell her.
“Oh?”
“It’s Papou.”
“Is he here right now?”
I nodded and her eyes wandered around us.
“Don’t freak out but… he’s standing right behind you.”
She grins at me, turns around and waves at the invisible space behind her where I can only see my grinning grandfather.
“Hi, Papou!”
Papou gives her a low gentleman’s bow.
“Papou, this is the girl I was telling you about.” I tell him.
“Why is she so pale?” He says as he hovers by her.
I turn to Wednesday. “He says you’re lovely.”
Papou frowns. “That’s not what I said. And why is her hair so white?”
“And he loves your hair.” I added.
She chuckles and then she turns around to him again. “Thanks, Papou!”
“She’ll take it as a compliment you dumb boy!” Papou shouts and I grin at Wednesday ignoring him.
Although there is lack of insight, Wednesday communicated with my grandfather like she sees him too. She joins him in our conversations and I translate what Papou is saying to her. It was tiring but I had a lot of fun.
It’s actually one of the things I like about Wednesday. She sees things positively no matter how bad or weird they are.
“You know the best moments when you wish it would never end I seem to have them when I’m with you.” she says as we watch the sun go down from our tree. She rests her head on my shoulder and I rest mine on hers.
“Wednesday, doesn’t it bother you that I see ghosts?” I asked her and she lifts her head to look at me.
She smiles sweetly. “No. That’s actually one of the things I like about you.”
She then closes her eyes and she leans in to me. I felt her lips touch mine and I was too shock to move. When she moved away, she smiles at me and she rested her head back on my shoulder.
That was the very first kiss I ever had.
