A heavy silence saturated the air, a sad, eerie sort of quiet. Not even the wind dared to speak, it held its breath and left the tree branches lifeless. One might have thought it had rained a little, as if the sky were weeping. But it was merely a mirage, as the small water droplets on Logan’s shirt were his own tears. He knelt on the uneven ground of the cemetery, silently crying to himself, the worst kind of crying. Logan stared at her grave clutching a bundle of orchids, shaking, and let out a small cry and began to whisper quiet words, shattering the existence of the silence.
“Kendra… why did this have to happen?” Logan said. “You shouldn’t have had to die. You deserved the world.” He pulled out a photograph out of the pocket of his jeans. Logan, with his short brown hair and blue eyes, and Kendra, with her astoundingly bright smile were pictured at their middle school graduation. Their old reality was frozen in time, a single moment that would not decay like a fading memory. “You were such a good person, and the best friend I could ever ask for. There is so much I never told you, so much I regret not saying.”
Just then, the wind ripped the photograph out of Logan’s hand and it was carried away, swirling through the sky.
“No!” he shouted. A ceaseless memory lost in the world, he would never know that exact moment again.
The picture disappeared into the infinity that was the sky, which had turned into a dull, stormy gray color. Raindrops descended down from dreary clouds, landing on the dead grass. Thunder boomed in the distance. The sky was weeping now, truly. Logan began to shiver as he had no raincoat, but he was numb with the sadness and regret that consumed him.
“I miss you Kendra. I should have saved you.” he spoke louder, as his voice was becoming drowned out by the pouring rain.
“Then you should have saved her.” Someone said from behind Logan.
“What are you doing here?” Logan turned around to see his friend, Troy. Troy held a half a dozen flowers in his hand, his eyes evidently exhausted from grief.
“I was trying to find out where you were. You never told anyone that you were going to come here. Are you okay?” Troy said.
“I’m fine. Were you listening to what I said?”
“I only heard the last thing you said. Why didn’t you save her?” Troy sat down next to Logan on the lawn in front of Kendra’s grave.
“You really don’t know what happened, do you?” replied Logan. “You have no idea what happened.”
“Honestly all I know is that she was killed during the school shooting and that you were there with her.” Troy’s eyes were fixed on Kendra’s headstone. It did not seem real that she was gone.
“Kendra… Kendra sacrificed herself to save me. The guy, the shooter, he came after us while we were running away to get out of the school. She screamed my name and I turned around and the guy was choking her. I begged for him to let her go. The shooter threw her into a glass display case and she fell to the ground. I ran over to help her, and the man walked up to us and I helped Kendra get onto her feet again, holding her hand. She pleaded for the guy not to hurt me. She begged and begged and squeezed my hand tighter.”
Logan took a deep breath and his eyes released mute tears as he continued describing what happened to Troy.
“The shooter said he was going to kill one of us. She said ‘No, please! Don’t hurt him, leave him alone, please.’ I told her she didn’t have do that and she whispered ‘I have to. It’s okay.’ The man laughed, a wicked, twisted laugh, and pointed a gun at Kendra. He shot her twice and ran away with a sick smile on his face.” Logan said quietly.
“Oh my god… I didn’t know that.” Troy responded. He was shocked, it was especially obvious how stunned he was.
“She fell to the ground, still alive, but gasping for air and choking on blood. I apologized over and over again. Kendra said that I shouldn’t be sorry. She said to me ‘Logan, I…’ and her voice died out. Her eyes became frozen and glazed over, a few tears in running down her cheek. I knew she was gone. I held her hand and whispered to her… whispered to her that I loved her.” said Logan, concluding his account of the school shooting.
“I had no idea. Kendra was the type of person who just wanted to make other people happy, no matter how she felt because of it. She was too good of a person to be taken so soon.” said Troy, who looked at Logan.
“Yeah. I wish I told her that I loved her when I had the chance. I miss her so much.”
“You really did love her, didn’t you? Because I think she loved you too.”
“Really?” Logan said.
“I wouldn’t doubt it for a minute. I’m going to go, I’ll give you a while by yourself. I had no idea that it ended that way. I’m really sorry.” Troy said. Logan watched him as he stood up, and left the small bunch of bright yellow tulips at Kendra’s headstone. Troy walked by Logan again and headed towards the sidewalk and disappeared around a bend in the cemetery.
“Did she really love me?” Logan said to himself. He said goodbye to Kendra, rose to his feet, and left his bouquet of orchids next to the tulips.
As Logan left Kendra’s grave, every memory he had of her crossed his mind. All of a sudden, the still down pouring skies faded, leaving the clouds remain gray but the sun shining through them, looking like hope. The sky had stopped its weeping. Yet as Logan strode onward, his teary eyes endured despite his new hope of lifeless love.
