Corner Store

05 | forever somehow

so somehow I have acquired 100 followers? thats honestly crazy and I really just want to say that thats awesome and thank you everyone who takes the time to read my humble offerings to this amazing fandom :)

*

It's a couple days later and the warm feeling swirling around in her stomach still hasn't gone away.

It follows her around like a shadow, stubborn and persistent, some projection maybe of the thoughts that won't leave her alone.

She tries to explain as much to Ayhan though her friend, it would seem, has some trouble reconciling with just a couple details of her story

"You're saying this man eats a lot of rice?"

"What? No, Ayhan, can you forget about that for a second?" they're in her room and it's late, late enough that the neighborhood is snoring with sleep, quiet and still, the only light spilling into the room from the streetlights that illuminate the empty streets-it's peaceful somehow, allowing for a calmness that, among other things, gives her way too much time to think.

She thinks about a lot of things lately, though out of all of them there's just one that she never seems to fully understand.

How do you explain such things to someone? How do you describe something that you yourself can't even grasp?

She rolls the though around her head again and lays carefully on her bed.

The mattress gives way to her weight and after a moment, dips down again as Ayhan shifts around to lay beside her.

"What I'm saying is that, this man, when he's close I...I feel something" it's a start, though vague, and Ayhan waits, noticing maybe that whatever it is that's on her friend's mind requires perhaps a little bit of patience.

They don't speak for a moment, letting that confession sink into the air as they both stare up to the ceiling

"Something pulls me closer.... I don't know, something makes me want to be closer and I-it seems like I'm helpless against it"

"Helpless against this man?"

Sanem shakes her head

"Not against just the man" she says, her voice soft as if in a dream "against something he carries with him, a sadness somewhere deep inside, a love for the life around him, a tiny bit of joy for the small things that make him happy-he's a stranger to me, mostly, though since the first time I saw him It was like we'd known each other always... forever somehow"

Ayhan listens carefully and as the room grows quiet again she shifts a little closer, turning on her side so that she's studying her friend's profile

"He's like a bird" Sanem decides after a moment and with a tiny grin lifting her cheeks "Like an Albatross-so beautiful and free" her gaze traces the image of the bird that hangs on her wall carefully as she speaks. Like it means something more now and though it's always hung there, like an ode to her dreams, now it beams, the colors of it bright, like a memory lives inside, so lovely and still so far "this man he comes to me sometimes, with a smile that seems to hold so many secrets, with a set of eyes that could burn you if you looked too deeply and yet still invite you to see. He lets me look and I try my luck, watching him move and feeling his gaze--But his wings are grand and far too restless and then he's gone and I, well, I'm left wondering if he'll ever return"

and yet, despite the words, Sanem realizes something more in that moment. If he's gone or if he isn't, he's always somehow there, somewhere, grazing the sea with his powerful wings or smiling down at her from under the rain.