Here she comes, that one, perfect young girl again. This woman's name is Lucy; she told me once in one of her visits. I am one of the Queen's soldiers, but really, I am here for the tourists. But there is this one girl, she comes everyday at the same time, the time I come out. She has this goal; to get me to laugh. Not me in general, but a soldier. And she comes when I come and goes when I go. I haven't laughed at her yet, though tempted so many times. She has this cute laugh that makes everyone else laugh. But I fear that if I laugh, she would no longer continue her visits, which I enjoy so much.
I want to tell her a little about me, so it isn't one sided. I want to tell her how many funny things she has ever said to me, and that I liked her company. But I wasn't permitted to speak.
"Hello again!" She said as cheerful as ever. "Just thought I would try to make you laugh again. Well, I only have until the end of next month, for I am only hear on vacation with some of my friends. But you don't want to hear about that do you?"
Yes, go ahead, tell me whatever you want! I won't mind!
"Well, lets see, I think I will try corny jokes today, what do you think about that?" She pulls out her small list of jokes, this has gotten shorter since she began. "Let's start with this one. What do you call an unorganized group of cats?"
...
"A cat-astrophe!" She laughed and I stayed silent as I was supposed to. "No? How about this one...Why don't you play poker in the jungle?"
...
"Because there are to many cheetahs!" She said again with confidence of my laughter.
"Fine, okay, that one wasn't as good, but listen to this! Why did the bicycle fall over?"
...
"Because it was 'too tired!'" She laughed her cute little laugh and I was to stay silent.
"Okay, okay! What do you call a seagull that flies over the bay?"
...
"A bay-gel! Get it!"
...
"Well I see that wasn't your favorite either. Well listen, I want to make a soldier laugh, and now it has to be you, you know why? Because I don't think you have to much fun here anyways. So I will get you to laugh...Just, not today, I ran out of jokes. I need to go now, I will see you tomorrow, and make you laugh!" She ended all her visits with this promise; it was her thing.
Yes, she isn't perfect like I said in the beginning, but she is kind hearted, I can tell. I just wish I could say something. Anything!
That night I went home to my apartment and looked out the window, only to see that that one girl was sitting in the another window across the street. I didn't want to stare, but I ended up that way. She never did anything but sit and read some book. My first thoughts were to visit, but that would be weird, so I grabbed a chair, some old book, and began fake reading until maybe she might look up and notice me.
It seemed like forever went by and she just sat there intently reading her book, flipping page after page. But how am I supposed to get her attention? She is so focused on her book that she won't look up for anything.
I then decided pretend reading wasn't going to get her attention. So I took some paper, and put in the biggest, boldest letters I could, "REMEMBER ME?" Then I sat at the window, waiting on my phone. I glanced up in between texts and games. But never did I see her wanting anything but to continue reading her book.
After giving up on looking every twenty seconds, I started only looking about five minutes at a time. But once, I looked up after a while of being sucked into my phone, I found her dancing around like a mad woman trying to get my at attention.
After she had settled down from her excitement, she mouthed, "Want to get coffee?"
And of course, I mouthed, "Yes."
As soon as she was no longer in sight through the window, I hurried to grab my coat and wallet, and dashed down the stairs. I don't know why this moment was so important, but to me, it just was. And I was more than just happy that we were going to meet each other.
I reached downstairs, and ran out the door and across the street, knowing she would meet me there. And she already was.
She put her hair into a high messy bun, and put on a scarf and matching coat. She also had an unfamiliar pair of glasses on. Though I had never seen those glasses, I recognized her immediately.
"Hi!!" She said as soon as she had seen me.
She came running to me, as if we had been friends long ago, and jumped into me for a hug. And since it was unexpected, we fell into the ground, my back first.
"I am so sorry!! Are you okay?" She asked as she got up to help me.
"Yes," I answered.
"Woah! You voice is a lot less cranky than I thought."
"Just because we can't laugh, doesn't mean we're all cranky,"I answered again with a laugh.
"Wow! I never thought I would meet you in person."
"Well," I didn't know what else to say. I knew a lot about her, but she knew next to nothing about me.
"So, let's start with your name," she said with a huge grin.
"Nathaniel," I said plainly.
"Well, as you already know, I am Lucy, so..."
"Um...Coffee?" I said in an asking, suggesting way.
"Oh, yes!" She remembered. "Let's go. Um... Which coffee place do you prefer?"
"Doesn't matter to me. Which one is your favorite?"
"Well, I haven't been to any except one, I was hoping you would show me new one." Lucy said plainly, but smiling.
"Oh, well...uh, there is this one down the street, it is fairly small, but has some pretty good coffee, and is fast to serve, so you can grab coffee and get onto work."
"Cool, let's go!" she said, excited and peppy.
I am pretty sure we both had a pleasant walk there. She asked a lot about me, since she had already told me so much about her. She asked me about my job, my hobbies, my favorite music genre, and if I liked to read, and what I did in my spare time, and if I had pets, and had I ever traveled, and, well, a lot of other questions. As she had learned a lot about me, I believe we had became closer, as if we really did know each other from way back. And through it all, I couldn't have been happier to meet anyone else.
The End
