An Ode to a Friend

Chapter - 3

I was sitting by my window contemplating how easy it would be to just go away, to vanish, to just cease existing. How no one would notice if I was gone. How very close I was to the abyss, so close that one step and it would all dissolve into nothingness. It was beginning to get hard to keep my mind away from 'it', the cracks were showing. Nights however lonely were easier. Still, the sane and rational part of my brain told me it was too hard going through life by myself and I should talk to someone about that and get advice but the voices, they chided me and said " Well, don't we all know how that'll turn out ? They'll be laughing and telling you to toughen up in no time and you'll crawl back into your little hole worse off than before." I admitted they had a point, I had been burned too many times before.

Right around then she said, "Hi! I am Sara and you are?"

This was too familiar and I thought "Oh god! No not this again!" I thought I knew how this was going to play out. I turned, to look at her face beaming down mine. Her large, warm eyes beckoned me to take her outstretched hand but I sat as still as a statue. Seeing me so unresponsive she took my hand of her own accord and shook it saying, "It's nice to meet you. Sorry never quite got your name but never mind that we are going to be late, the story teller's about to start." And with that she wheeled me over to Mrs.Crae's bed, the old woman with whom I had been sharing this room, the one who talked in her sleep.

I don't remember the story she told us that day because from that moment onwards I did nothing but think about Sara, not the one who was sitting next to me, I was thinking of my Sara.