Continued Silence

Five : Mona Lisa's smile

15th January, 2009

Sometimes I wished that my life was flawless, but it wasn't. Something terrible was always the part of it. I had seen movies in which no matter what tragedy happened before, the end was always beautiful. Most of the times, the hero with his unbeatable heroism would be saved in the end with some immediate miracle.
I hoped that would work for me too.

The moment I met her, I dreamt every night of starry eyes and vanilla scent.

Since new year's night, I hadn't seen her much or talked to her, until she showed up in our school and most precisely in my class. It was her first good day. I was sitting with William on the last bench. We were just discussing about the poem" Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening" by Robert Frost. I had always liked that poem. The metaphors, how it wonderfully portrayed death and how we all had loads of works to do before the time comes; As he said:

The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

As Miss. Anne was endlessly talking about the poem, Grace came with her stunning smile. Miss Anne stopped and gestured towards her,
"This is Grace Anderson and she will be your new classmate."

My heart melted like a wild snowflake.

She was looking really gorgeous. She was wearing a peach top with white jeans and a leather jacket draped over her bare shoulders.
As she walked down the lane, I terribly wished that she could sit with me but as I wasn't alone, she sat with Ethan. Ugh, I whispered to myself. That really made me jealous and I wanted to punch him the way he was about to at that party but I controlled my fury and focused on the poem.

But she was in my head. I couldn't focus on the lecture enough. My thoughts were drifted back to that night we met under the starry sky. I pictured her Mona Lisa's smile, her Atlantic ocean eyes and how she spoke. It all felt like magic.
It all felt like a dream, or just a scenario that I had summoned up in my head.

As I was drowned in my deep thoughts, Miss Anne shouted my name twice and then asked,
"What is the main theme of the poem, Daniel? Can you please sum it up? I think you are not in the class."
Big trouble was ahead of me. I literally forgot everything we were talking about.
I stood up and said,
"Uh, the poet, um, Robert Frost is trying to, uh say that we all have works to,u know perform, before like, um death?"
Wow, great Daniel. What a theme. Even Robert Frost would have been proud.
There was silence in the class, even I could hear my own breaths.
Miss Anne then replied with an irritated mood,
"Can you please stop with these 'uh's and um's' and try to understand your tasks, unless you want to be thrown out of the class that's makes 30 percent of your  grades."

My whole face reddened as if all my blood came rushing to my face. To make things worse, Ethan said,
"Miss, do forgive this little boy. He daydreams alot."
And then laugh erupted everywhere. I was feeling so embarrassed, especially in front of Grace. I mumbled a sorry and sat down. My anger on Ethan was now doubled but I swallowed it and focused on the lecture until the bell rang.

Phew.

The whole class rushed out. I decided to talk to Grace but I couldn't find her. I raced into the hallways and there she was leaning against her locker, just looking at the floor. She seemed so deep in her thoughts that for a moment I thought she knew everything in the universe.
I tried to move to her but she again started walking. There were so many kids bumping into me but I didn't care. I passed through some people and then finally she was almost near me, and for a moment, I felt so close to her that I could even feel her tulip's scent mixed with blueberry jam.
Then Ethan showed up in front of me, when I was almost near her.
I thought that the saddest word in the whole damn world was almost. Like coming so close to a thing but then falling short.