Colours of life

The gentle summer breeze hurled up her hair in a wavy motion. Michelle was sitting on a bench near the departmental store from where she had just made an exit.

She eyed the teddy bear on the bench near her and opened her favorite Popsicle where she waited for her companion, her best friend to arrive like always. She wondered what had caused her delay after all these years.

She used to come to this place when she felt down. Michelle called upon her best friend and no matter what time the clock suggested she would always be there for Michelle.

She remembered the terrible times of her past when she used to stay in the foster care. Her only support system there was Sara, a red haired mischievous child. Michelle had always thought of her as her ultimate defense mechanism which she proved to be.

Sara had once defended her when a group of older kids had pulled on Michelle's hair and ridiculed her because she was crying about it.

Over the years, Sara was the only one who understood Michelle and corrected her overthinking skills. Michelle and Sara were inseparable.

Michelle would always overthink about her not having a family and even if she did she thought she would have to convince them to take Sara with her. Most of the times, she used to fend off her chances of having a family because the parents wanted only one child.

The ritual started when Michelle was first bullied by the older kids. They went to the store, bought a "Unicorn" Popsicle and ate it sitting in the bench near the store. Sara always managed to repeat the same line, "Michelle, no matter what happens in life you have to remember always. You have to remember that life is like this Popsicle, colorful and bright. Your life - this Popsicle - colorful."

She paused for a moment. "Although it does not taste so good!" They would laugh after this line. For a fact, Michelle never found the Popsicle to be distasteful as she ate it with her only friend!

Every time Michelle would doubt about her never getting a family or any other problems, they would sneak out to the nearest store to buy the Popsicle. It was really a miracle how they managed to do so since the foster care was a tight place indeed.

Then she remembered Sara telling her, "I have a good news and a bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Michelle replied, "I don't do so good with the bad news. Let's hear the good news first and then we will hear the bad one. If I become sad about it, we will sneak out to have Unicorn once more."

Sara had smiled and said, " Michelle, I have been chosen. For the first time in my life, I feel valued. I don't feel worthless. I feel I can be loved apart from you."

"Oh my god! That is some great news. We have to act fast. We have to decide what we can take what we can not. And, we have to plant that rotten onion under the bed of those bullies like we had always planned we would do on the last day. And, we also need to..."

"Michelle, the bad news is they have chosen only me," Sara had said interrupting her.

"What? Such a waste all these plans. This is ridiculous. They know you will not leave me alone and neither will I. Why do they keep on giving us such offers anyway?" Michelle had questioned.

Sara had said, "I have already said yes. Michelle, you don't understand. I am blind! This might be my only chance of getting chosen. All the times you had to say no, they simply denied to tell you that they did not want a blind child to adopt."

Michelle had felt the betrayal very hardly. She stared at Sara as a mirror image of a family crashed in front of her eyes. She could see the picture she had in mind fly away to a distant place never to be found again.

Sara said reassuringly, " Michelle, I know you are upset. Let's go to eat Unicorn one last time. I have an hour to spare until my new parents take me home."

Michelle could not believe the words that came out of Sara's mouth. She just ran over to her room and locked herself in. She had fallen asleep on the wet pillow after crying hard.

"Let this be a dream! Let this be a fragment of my overthinking like it has always been! Wake up Michelle, just wake up!" She kept telling herself.

She did and it was midnight. She had run to Sara's room and found her teddy bear without which she would never sleep. What a relief! But, Sara was nowhere to be found! Michelle had gone to the instructor and asked.

"Sara has been gifted to have a family, my child. It is rare that blind kids get chosen. She kept waiting for hours for you to come. She would not budge but it was already late for their new parents and they took her. She said she would leave you her favorite teddy bear my dear. We are sorry," the instructor had told her.

Michelle was about to turn and leave when the instructor's words stopped her.

"Michelle, she said she had to have a colorful unicorn-something with you," the instructor said confused.

Michelle had gone to her room alone, tainted with the feeling of sadness with one sentence humming on her head time and again, "Your life - this Popsicle - colorful"

She was now sitting on the bench with the drooping Popsicle in her hand. She never had the courage to tell Sara that Unicorn was in fact black in color. She never wanted Sara to find out the truth.

She found that in fact Unicorn was distasteful. And there she was thinking about the irony of the incomplete fragmented sentence.

"Your life - this Popsicle - colorful"