The Diary of Mei

VI

Today is a lonely Saturday. I woke up with a fog in my brain. Hours moved by like pages in a book. My mom suddenly left to be with a friend today so my siblings where left in the house alone.

My siblings are : Ani my youngest sister, Ira who is older than Ani, and Mike who is second in age to me. Ani the youngest has a bright happy way about her always with looser curls that bounce on her head. Ira is the wildest but not quite as outgoing as mike who is always so excited, and ready to do anything.
That morning we watched a few movies together,while Dad was catching up on some work around the house. Ani and I baked a pie and sat it on the windowsill to cool. We cleaned up the kitchen loaded the dishwasher while Ira ran the vacuum. Afternoon approached so I worked on finishing my homework, tidied up my essay on S.E. Hinton's book and had some cereal. Consequently the day just seemed to creep by in a fog.

Mysteriously my phone rang. No one important ever calls so as usual I send it to voicemail. The number was oddly close to my own number it confused me when it popped up across the screen 1233456789 when mine is 1234456789. When I listen to the voicemail it's Uyu.
" Hey it's Uyu! Aylin gave me your number from the study group list. I was just wondering what you were doing today.... I guess this sounds a bit creepy so......um.....see ya."

I laughed to myself a little at the long pauses in the message. I called him back right away, and we decided to meet up in the park down the road. I put on my many layers hat, and doubled socks. Everyone had either gone out with friends for the rest of the day or were back in their bedroom probably taking a nap. So I scribbled a note-

Going to the park be home soon. Mei @ 2:25

The park was only about a 10 minute walk away but my nose felt frozen almost immediately. It was a sunny day if you stayed out the shade you felt a slight bit of warmth. Snow melted slightly, and dripped off the trees. Everything looked so much brighter with light bouncing of all the bright white. My nose instantly started to freeze, and I wish I had brought a thermos with a hot drink. I looked out over the park all the benches were full of wet melting snow trickling into soft pools underneath.

Uyu walked towards me with two canvas chairs on one arm and waving a thermos in the other. He put his things down to hug me, and told me he was so happy I agreed to meet him. We complained about the boringness of staying home on a weekend. It feels like weekends need to be filled with something purposeful no matter the circumstances. Rain, or shine you can't waste a good weekend. It's the days we can have an adventure. Each idle weekend is an adventure wasted.

We walked out to the end of the park crossed the street into an ever flowing, still, field. I'm sure the farmers are busy with it in the spring but for now it's empty, and we weren't disturbing anyone out there. We sat our chairs down pressed them firmly into the snow. Uyu opened the thermos and pulled two cups out his jean coat pockets. The thermos was filled with piping hot cocoa which was the most refreshing thing for this cold damp day. It's like he read my mind when he was preparing for this walk.

We sat there sipping hot cocoa, and talking. It seemed like there were endless things to talk about with Uyu. I don't know how but we never ran out of things to say. We started with school, and it seemed a lot of the things on his mind mirrored the things on my mind. We mainly were focused on the school play for this year. It was a bit disappointing this year. I'm surprised we both agreed on that. I thought it was just me who felt that way. This years play is about a simple love story. All the kids argued about who the love interests should be, how they should act, what kind of relationship it should be. All the options argued upon were very stereotypical. I wanted something new something I could feel. I wanted real music, real art, and lines I could imagine a real person saying.

As the time trickled by we found ourselves talking about life at home. I am not sure why, but I felt comfortable talking to him. Even though we really just met. He really listened, and asked the same questions I wondered about. I told him about the sudden frequent explosive arguments multiplying between my parents. I worried about them being together. I want everyone to be happy, and right now no one felt safe being all together in one room. I opened up about my anxiety a bit. And it all just felt so weird I was talking so much to someone I hardly know. But it felt right.

Uyu looked into the snow, and told me about his concerns at home. His father was causing a lot of concern. He suddenly quit his job, because he felt he needed to find something that suited him better. Uyu eyes filled with tears as he talked about his mom awake all hours of the night with a calculator looking over the bills. She couldn't sleep because she didn't know how they would pay the bills. He talked about getting a job for after school hours, but that would mean he would have to quit study group, and a lot of his extra curricular activities he was doing to get into a good college. Uyu opened up about some depressive thoughts he recognized from some of my own experiences, and we bonded over these.

We sipped our hot cocoa until the thermos was empty. The sun started to set, sending golden streams of light over the snow. That's when Uyu suggested we write our own play. So tomorrow afternoon he suggested we meet at the cafe down the street to brainstorm for writing our play. We walked our way back through the park watching the sunset. I'm not sure why but winter sunsets are so much more beautiful than any other time of year.