A Message to Dawn: An Ode to Loneliness

It's a heavy burden to carry: loneliness. It weighs upon your shoulders like an emotional grief. There is sadness, and emptiness, and longing.

There lived one boy who knew this feeling all too well. He knew what it felt like to be isolated in a room full of people—stuck in that malaise fog that surrounded him that threatened to swallow him whole. It was a feeling all-encompassing—all-consuming.

He lived on the third floor of a beach house apartment building. He and his parents had just moved there because of his dad's new job. His room was still littered with cardboard boxes, too tired to unpack. But, it wasn't totally austere: that twin bed he'd had since he was twelve, that old worn mahogany furniture that his mother always insisted on keeping despite his father's complaints. But still, it felt vacant. Like something was missing. It always left him feeling somnambulant, even when he did get sleep.

After moving, he'd felt like he lost something. Something he longed for. A friend. Anything to rid himself of that vacant feeling that tore at his lonely heart.

There was one morning he decided to stare outside from his apartment window that overlooked the beach. He could see her just past that pale blue-grey glass. He would watch as the sun rose over the sea's horizon. That is also when he could see her, shining brightly, so much so that he swore her silhouette nearly blended together with the sky's early morning hues. He did not know much about her—only that her name was Dawn, and that she only came by early morning. Just her presence breathed color into his life—calmed the feelings of disquiet. She never spoke any words and he only ever saw her for brisk moments as she'd be gone once the sun stood taller. So, trying to get to know anything else about was a fruitless endeavor.

The fog that was nigh choking him, held tighter; a thick, shrouding cloud. The feeling of infinite tiredness returned ever-stronger. The suffocating presence kept him glued to the mattress; always there, lingering behind his shoulder.

It was almost 6 o'clock when he'd decided to finally get up from his bed and leave the apartment building to sit on the beach. No one was out yet, given how early it was in the morning. There was a dove perched upon the eaves of the building, obscured by the quiet and soul-sick fog.

Eventually, he made it to the sand, looking out at the infinite sea beyond. He pondered as he sat upon the sand, wondering what it'd be like to truly be known.

The sun extended a hand, its rays dancing across the water. His eyes followed the lightened path as they glided across the waves. The birds flew overhead, singing their dulcet melody. He listened agog; with life so ever-abstruse—its secrets only known in whispers, in a language only the dead know.

The cold breeze blew past him. Though the air was light, the fog still loomed as he was once again alone with his thoughts.

That was until a voice cut through—an unfamiliar softness coupled with a friendly tone.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

The boy snapped his gaze to the right, toward the sound of the voice. "Huh?"

"The sunset," clarified the voice, who he now had a face to put to it. There was a girl adjacent to him. She seemed around his age, though her skin was slightly tanner than his own. She wore a pale blue dress that flew effortlessly in the wind—almost making her appear like some floating apparition. She also wore a bright smile as she said those two words. They were simple, soft-spoken. But, they cut through the air like a knife.

"Oh," He blinked, his expression wracked with the unorthodox nature of acknowledgement. "Yeah, I guess."

A frown nagged at her features. "You guess?" She repeated in question.

"Oh- um..." He shifted awkwardly. "I didn't mean it like that. It's pretty."

Her response started as she came to sit next to him on the sand. The grains somehow remained undisturbed. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I'm..." He paused, eyes lingering upon the water that shimmered in the blue-orange light of the new day. "Waiting for a friend."

"I'll wait with you then,"

He did not even have to look back from the waves to imagine the brightest smile on her face. She was almost akin to the rising sun; always glowing with a contagious hope and happiness; grateful for the time it has before the moon takes its place upon dusk.

The two sat for some time. He did not have an exact number. He was too focused on how her presence made him feel. She too ameliorated the fog. Her friendly and eager attitude evaporated it like the cleanest of spring water.

"Thank you," The words fell from his lips—a quiet wisp of sound. Though, somehow, it did not evade her.

"For what?" Came her response, raising a brow with a bemused look.

There was a fleeting silence between them, though to him it passed by far too slow. "I... I don't know–"

"Are you lonely?"

The question caused him to blink again. She stared at him with a solemn expression. He was caught off guard about how this girl could read him like a book, despite the hidden plot beneath.

He seemed to take his silence as a sign that he was right.

"I'll be your friend," She said with a smile as benign as her heart. His eyes glided toward the sky as she spoke.

Still, even now, as he stared up at the rising sun, the sky colored a myriad of oranges, yellows, and blues—the message was clear. Tomorrow will come and go whether you decide to seize it or not. But, remember this... When time calls for dawn to break: you are not alone—and one day, something that is lost always has a way to be found again.