Short Stories

Love Can Alter Anything

The beauty of the old house fascinated me and made me desire it. The floors were oak, very sturdy; the windows wide and big, getting the gusts of wind inside the house; the lawn and garden was filled with colorful rainbow patterns and the gate, even rusty and creepy on its hinges, was intact.

It was very beautiful and cheap: only $30,000 for a big sale of a house like that, and it was like you wouldn't believe. I sighed as I handed the woman the cash from my inheritance from Mum.

My mother doesn't look like me in any way, nor my father and my other sibling, Sunny. I had often asked them why, but all that I would get was a few bright smiles and afterwards, tears. When I turned older, but still young enough to be sitting on my dad's lap, I realized that I was adopted and taken care of by these loving creatures, and I got over it. Sunny, now sixteen, glowing with a contagious glow and beauty, was to live with me here, in this house that would be ours and some female borders. Sunny adored me, loved me and turned to me like a true old sister, even if it was really her who was the first child. We love each other that we both made an oath that we'll never marry until we turn twenty-five. Dad and Mum have passed now, but they told us that we must never ever mourn for them but two hours.

As I looked at the house, I imagined the future unraveling with Sunny and I sitting on the porch, playing around the house, with our borders and eating exotic, yet nutritious food for dinner. I sighed happily and called my sister about this old-fashioned house, and I asked her if she can organize it. The task seemed to fit her very well, Sunny loves decorating and doing everything under her soft hands. She inherited it from Mum, being a designer and all. On the other end of the line, my sister Sunny was in a mood. But not to worry she had said, she'll be here in some seconds. But now that I look back at it, I realized that nothing in this world belong and lasts.

I wouldn't say anything about what had happened, but Sunny, in her haste and bad mood, crashed her new green Volvo at a post and got serious injuries concerning the spine. As a result, she's now in a coma.

At the green halls of the hospital, I waited patiently for news of my sister's improvements. But of course, it would always take seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years...

Sunny was beautiful even in her hospital bed. Her perfect arched brows rested calmly above her pale eyelids, her cheeks were hollow now, but just the same, she's still the Sunny I knew. I cried a lot, gone plastic enough, and gone as hollow as she was in the past days that went by. The house has been bordered with female tenants, who were of High Class, and made their rooms into condo-units they use only for meeting/ party purposes. They paid even more than enough of the original rent, so I can afford Sunny's hospital bills.

But to become alone in the world without so much as close friends near enough, and to look after things and not having the heart for it was harder. I tried to gamble with life itself; I tried every job possible just to earn for myself and build things that are my own and do things I love. Getting twenty-seven, young but old enough to start a life her own, all that I can do was to look for a stable job. I do not get fired, but I got left behind by others. No one here even knew that I studied genetic engineering in college and should have been earning a lot of money, only if I knew where to look.

Having Sunny in a coma pained me so much. I paid less attention to what I was doing, and after 6 months, I got very skinny and bookish.

Life went by as hospital, bookstore, house, [if lucky and possible] job fairs, house, hospital.

But that came the time when Lord gave me hope.

The speaker called for Sunny's doctor. Wings immediately flapped its flight in my heart. Pulsing with new energy and joy, I caught up to him and asked the most norm of a question a family member with a coma would have asked a gazillion times. And got the same answer twice as many of questions.

"Are there improvements for Sunny Drake?"

"I'm sorry, none, Ms. Summer. But I'll assure you that you'll have news," then he left me again in that dreaded hallway.

Many times I've got disappointed by his response, but all the same. We never knew and we wait. I slipped back to the plastic chair to find a man, maybe a bit older than me of a year or a half, sitting next to mine. He had his head between his thighs, as if following some medical instructions. Only what he was feeling as audible. He sniffed and cursed.

"Sir, are you all right?"

"Do you have a loved one here too?"

"Yes, my sister. I'm Summer Drake..."

"Demeter Ruffee, call me Dem; my wife's confined here. How about your sister?"

It took me a while to answer him back. What if he'll say 'sorry' like everyone says? I dragged out a breath.

"Summer?"

"Sorry; my sister's in a coma. So I've been here for a long time now. I've never seen you before."

"We just moved in, my wife and I, but she was diagnosed with leukemia, stage four..."

"There is hope." I said it like it was the only string I was holding on for Sunny to show anything.

"Would you mind if you'll keep her company for a while?"

"Um, are you sure? Maybe she'll think otherwise..."

"No; but please, a favor done to a new or maybe an OLD friend."

All this time, he didn't raise his head to meet my tired blue-gray eyes. But as he told me where his wife's room was, I definitely believed that we've met before. Why else would he refer to me as a friend in a matter of minutes?

Room 344-10B

I looked at the whitewashed door. Am I supposed to get in or not? I knew Demeter only by name, and it's hard to trust nowadays. But I guess, I'll be safe here, lines and lines of other cancer patients are cramped in this hall. Obviously, Demeter doesn't want to stay here.

I knocked, and a female voice answered me from behind.

As I opened the door slowly, déjà vu seeped to my head. I remembered Mum, she died of leukemia, too. That's why I got drawn into Demeter's world so fast. Beauty, for that was her name and not an adjective, was silently snoring on the reclined bed. The bedside contained all the possible medicine someone with such illness needs, but all of those I knew how to use. Demeter was on the other side, holding Beauty's pale hand.

O God, how much more?

Seeing him like that, with his eyes closed and his face in contact with his wife's hands... it was a sight of true and everlasting love. But that was when I noticed his face, which was utterly familiar to me. I tried to locate details, but my mind had gone past its limits and I'm sure am tired.

"Summer, thank you for fulfilling my wish." He smiled.

"is she Beauty Ruffee? Her name speaks for herself..."

"I know. But that's not the reason I married her." Another smile offered its way for him.

"It's because you loved her, Demeter."

"Yes, but more than that, I married her because I need her. She gives me life."

But what will happen to him if she'll leave him alone like this? Surely, the Ruffee's contacts would come, but I know that won't be enough to fill the pain. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Love for a love lost.

"I don't know what to say... you really love her."

"Of course, I do."

"Do you mind if I ask? do you have kids...?"

"No."

I ended the conversation quickly and left Beauty with Demeter. Beauty with Demeter. The world seem to be unfair to me, but I guess Demeter's situation is far worse than mine.

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Hope this story serves as a lesson for us. --tediivAmp23