To the moon and back

Chapter 9.2

Chapter 9.2

Elizabeth Kawong had come alone to the cinema and by her car. I walked her to where she had parked it, at a private parking lot behind the cinema. I had parked my scooter there too but not close to her car. She owned a yellow VW Beetle, a coincidence that left me feeling like i was being haunted and watched by Annika.

"Oops! Romeo just murdered my relative. About time he vanishes" said Elizabeth, tall by her car. Rubbing my hair i said, "oh silly me. I guess i will see you around then."

"Yeah. It is a small world we live in."

"Oh. Can i have your number" i said and took out my mobile phone. "Coincidence meetings sometimes take forever to happen."

"Mm. That'll happen next time we meet" she said, grabbing her handbag with both her hands again. In response to her refusal i hummed.

"What if there is no next time" i asked her, a question which she answered with no hesitation.

"There is, Nigel" she insisted. "People even talk about its existence in the afterlife."

To avoid looking like a person in desperation i bowed down to her wish.

"Okay" i said and put away my phone, feeling the awkwardness of being rejected of something. "I will wait for that next time we will meet again."

The night had gotten old. There was less of everything going anywhere. Many people were in their homes and some just like me and Elizabeth also, if she had not yet made it to her home, were on their way to there, tired and wishing to just be on their beds. I got on mine after i had left my scooter in the garage. I was so sleepy that sleeping was the only thing i was capable of doing at this moment. The hate for it had got lost in the darkness of the night. Glory to the man in the sky i didn't fall asleep or doze for once while on the road. It could have been all bad if i had. Before the sleep had taken over i thought of Annika and how my life could have been if i had not known her. It couldn't have been fun as it had been lately. The lady had made an impact on me and i was grateful for that that i felt it in my bones that i needed her to know that. I just did not know how i was to do that since she was not around and not answering my calls or messages.

I woke up to a sour morning. Jennifer didn't want me to go and see her at the hospital that day. She wasn't the one who told me that. She had told my mother who told me through a phone call. Her sickness after the chemotherapy was worse than just vomiting and feeling sick. She was having diarrhea too. I was able to stomach that fast because i had something in my mind to keep me preoccupied which i got into immediately after i was done having breakfast.

With a pen in my left hand, a new journal on the table to provide me with papers and to act as an anchor i sat in the kitchen, on the middle chair of the dinning set. I had decided to write Annika a letter. Beginning it was easy but coming up with the right ways to convey my message was not. How poets and authors come up with what they write? I wondered and imagined of the struggles involved.

Fourteen papers, all bearing the words 'Dear Annika,' and some few others, squashed and toast into a bin later i at last had come up with a letter that expressed exactly what i wanted Annika to know. My wild thoughts were that the words in the letter were to occupy a space in her heart and she was to want to read it all over again, again, again and again for a million times. Having not yet put it in an envelope i red it out loud and it went:

Dear Annika,
Last night was beautiful. I looked at the sky and all i could see were stars and that got me smiling. Do you know why? I remembered that one of them is a dear to me. I haven't seen or talked to that star in a while but yet i still smile and blush whenever it crosses my mind, which happen very often i can tell you. And today. Today i want that star to know that i am thankful that it fell all the way down from the sky just to be friends with me.
Nigel