Second Chances (Kathneil FF)

Second Chances - 7

Second Chances - 7

It was windy and slightly drizzling.

Droplets of water could be seen on the leaves and was making the branches slippery.

As they were on the roots too.

To which she was gripping on tightly.

Hanging on for her dear life.

Over a jagged cliff, wIth her feet dangling haplessly above the precarious waves.

Don't scream, she told herself. Don't look down. Look up, look at him.

He was pressed to the grassy floor.

Above her.

Trying to balance himself, and reaching out as far as he could for her.

His beautiful young face illuminated by the moon glow.

He called out for her in a language she could not understand.

But she understood his urgency, his desperation to bring her up to safety.

Making herself strong, she hung on one hand, holding out the other towards him.

Heaving herself up towards him with whatever strength she could muster.

Help, she screamed, but only in her head.

Slowly she felt her other hand losing grip.

He called out for her again, extending his hand towards her as far as he can, stopping short of falling off the cliff himself.

She looked up at him again, and smiled.

Knowing it would be her last. And glad that it was for him.

Thank you, she thought and smiled again. And I'm sorry...

Before she totally lost her grip and fell tumbling down... into the waiting rocks and rough seas below.

+++

"Aargghh...!"

Anita woke with a start.

Beads of perspiration dotted her forehead.

A different dream tonight, and this one was scary.

But always the same face. The same boy.

The boy, that man could have been in the past.

Anita pushed her wet hair away from her face and wiped the sweat off her forehead, recalling the earlier scene at the hotel.

She was rushing to keep her painting stuff in the games centre to rush home.

She lost the track of time again, painting mainly from memory in the dark night.

Her last class finished was at 6 that evening and she went straight to continue with her own painting in the garden right after.

Foregoing dinner, yet again.

She did not know where he came from, but she would assume he was from one of the business centre meeting rooms.

Only god knows the shock she felt when he looked up smiling at her with the brushes in his hand.

You, she had thought. The boy in my dreams. Have you leapt from my subconscious-ness into my reality?

Knowing there was no one to really answer, she sighed.

Mommy, how I wish you were here with me, she thought.

Unable to sleep, Anita threw off her blankets and walked towards the kitchen.

With a glass of cold water in her hand, she walked slowly to her living room.

It was a small cozy one, housing only a flat screen television, a three seater sofa, a few bean bags, a square coffee table and painting easel.

She stood in front of the four panel glass door separating the living room from the balcony, staring into the night.The artist in her preferred a Parisian skyline that she often saw in her fashion magazines, but a garden cum playground is a nice scene to come home too, she thought.

After a long while staring absently into the night, Anita did the inevitable.

That was to turn back towards her bedroom to finish her sleep.

In doing so, she had no choice but to walk into the semi finished painting she had standing on the living room easel.

The light from the street lamp outside her glass balcony doors casted a glow on a private oil creation she finished many nights ago.

Not able to stop herself, she walked towards it and stopped right in front of it.

And with an unknown force, her finger trailed down the length of her painting.

Outlining the side of a dimpled cheek of the boy in her dreams.

A smiling boy with a set of crinkled twinkling eyes.

Who are you, she asked again, frown lines marring her beautiful face. Why are you haunting my nights and days even. And... why are you here now?