Infinite

Chapter 1

Her body was a whisper of movement.

She swayed and scuttled across the floors, wanting not to draw attention to herself.

But she was so worth drawing attention to.

Her dark, long, straight auburn hair framed her face. Her skin was so white it could have been bleached. She was so tall and so thin.

But her eyes...

They were like kaleidoscopes. They were translucent grey, rimmed with a deep green and speckles of bright blue. They shimmered and shined and glimmered and glistened.

She was beautiful.

But she never spoke.

I had never heard her voice.

Oh, but how I yearned to hear it.

To hear her.

I wanted her to whisper my name, or sing me a lullaby, or even yell at me. All I wanted was to hear her voice.

But I never did.

Not until that night.

~

It was the Spring Carnival. Held every year at the fair grounds up near the country and cows that I had a secret love for.

There was a Ferris wheel, and games, and food... Delicious, fattening cotton candy and popcorn.

"Dude. Wake up." whispered Jake.

"Wha... I... wa-wasn't asleep..." I mumbled.

"Really. Then what the hell were you doing? Laying back, eyes closed. Sure looked like sleep."

"I was just... Erm..." I stuttered. "I was just... Thinking."

"Thinking? Really? Wow." He managed a look of surprise. It looked like it took a high level of mental capacity he was highly incapable of mustering.

"Wow. Ok. Whatever. Point is, we're here. So get up."

I crawled out of the car onto the grass. Music played, and I could smell the funnel cake and fried Oreos from here.

We never came, Jake, Nick and I, to have fun stuffing our faces.

They came to get drunk on the expired beer the clowns kept in their tents.

They came to sleep with whores they picked up on the merry-go-round.

They came to trash the games.

That's not why I came.

I came to see her.

~

"Here ya go, son." muttered the probably-drunk carnival dude running the game.

He handed me a stuffed hippo in a tutu. It was stupid and childish, but fluffy and cute.

It was something she would have loved.

"Dude, I don't even understand why you got that thing." complained Nick.

"Yeah. Hoes don't really dig stuffed animals." joked Jake.

They both laughed like it was the funniest thing on earth.

"Hehe." I muttered half heartedly.

"Dude, what's up? You always get like this at this thing." asked Nick.

"L-like what?" I asked, faking confusion.

"'L-like what?'" mimicked Jake. "Like THAT dude! All nervous and awkward. Just chill!"

"Right. I'm... Um... just gotta use the bathroom. Yeah." I muttered.

"Ooh! The bathroom, hmm?" said Nick with a sly look on his face. "Mhm. Well, have fun."

"And use protection!" exclaimed Jake, and they both burst out laughing.

Oh. I saw. They thought I was using the bathroom for...

No.

They were wrong.

I wanted to give her something.

~

She walked with her dad, arm in arm.

I approached cautiously, as if on a land mine.

I tapped her on the shoulder.

"Umm... D-Dawn?" I asked softly.

She turned around, her kaleidoscope eyes searching mine.

"I, um... I... I won you this." I brandished the hippo and held it out to her.

Her pale hands reached out and grasped it.

"Thank you." she whispered, so softly I might not have heard it.

Her father burst in to sobs.

Disturbed and confused, I asked him what was wrong.

"I... She... She hasn't talked in... Come sit with me, son." he choked out between tears.

We sat beside the Super Snack Shack!.

"My daughter... Dawn... She hasn't spoken since.. Since..." He burst into sobs again.

"Since WHAT, sir?" I asked softly.

"Since... Since the death of her mother." he managed to say.

"Her mother died when she was eleven. They were very close. After her death, she went into grief. She hasn't spoken in... 5 years now."

I was shocked. That's why she never talked.

"Sir," I said. He looked up and into my eyes.

His eyes weren't like hers.

"Sir, please don't be offended by this, but... W-would I have your permission... To, um... To ask your daughter out? On... O-on a d-date?"

His eyes filled with tears again.

He cried.

"I'm so sorry sir, as I said, I didn't mean any offense-"

"Offense?! Offense, my dear boy?! Of course not! You made my daughter speak! You could marry her if you chose!"

My eyes lit up and he looked shocked.

"I didn't mean that last part!" he exclaimed anxiously.

"I know! I know sir."

I smiled.

"Thank you."