An unexpected guest

A little quaint diner sits nestled along the treeline of the rich evergreen forest of West Virginia, standing in defiance against the kudzu slowly wrapping it's suffocating arms around the sickly green exterior. The soul occupant, a young Diane Henderson, stands behind the counter in her white apron and baby blue flair dress. All of the customers have since gone home, leaving her to her nightly ritual of hot tea and reading before it's time to lock up and go home herself. 

Diane places a tea kettle on the stove, her back against the big bay windows lining the front of the dining hall. After several minutes, the kettle begins to scream and she carefully takes it off of the stove. The bells on the door chime as she carefully adds honey and lemon to the sweet, comforting concoction. While continuing with her whisking, she whips the dismay from her lips and announces, " Sit wherever you see fit!" 

There was no response other than a debilitatingly loud silence, followed by a shallow shuffling of feet across the floor. Diane turns around to find a peculiar looking teenage girl sitting in a corner booth at the far end of the room. She appears wet and muddy, including her hair that is draped sloppily over her face. She looks at the girl perplexed for a brief moment while she contemplates what she should do next. Although it's the end of April, the bite of winter is still prominent in the air. " Poor kid must be freezing," she mumbled to herself.

Diane placed an old white, coffee-stained mug in front of the girl. She then proceeds to fill up the cup with hot tea,  while staring at her questionably. 

"I don't have any money," she whispered. 

Diane forcibly grins in pity for the poor, sweet girl.

"Oh, baby.  That's ok, it's my treat."

"Thank you," she says blankly, grabbing for the cup in desperation.

"You're welcome, honey. My name is Diane, ok? If you need anything just give me a holler. "

The girl nods. Diane sets the tea kettle down on the table and begins to walk away, hesitantly stopping and turning back around towards the girl.

"Are you ok, honey? Is there anyone that I can call for you or anything?"

"I'm fine. "

In an effort not to snoop too far into someone else's business, Diane walks away and completes her closing chores while the girl sat quietly and sipped on her tea. On the way back towards the kitchen, it dawned on her that the owner kept a small lost-and-found bin in his office just in case customers came back looking for their forgotten belongings. She rummages through the pile to find an oversized black hoodie left behind by a boy that must be about the same age as the girl out front. On the back it read, 'Jefferson' followed by the numbers, '23' in big block letters with the initials 'KM & EJ' stenciled in sharpie on the left inside sleeve. Of course, the fabric will swallow her whole and will more than likely be outside her realm of style, but it's better than catching pneumonia or freezing to death, she thought. 

Diane hastily walked back to the front and timidly offered her findings with outstretched arms toward the girl. 

" I, uh, know it could be prettier, but at least it's dry and warm."

The girl gave her a gracious smile and accepted the gift, swiftly pulling off her wet tshirt and sliding the fresh linen over her head as Diane awkwardly looked away. 

"Thank you very much," she said softly while repetitively tracing the sharpie with her index finger.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just grabbed it from the back, but you can keep it. I'm sure the owner won't be coming back for it." 

The girl nodded and continued sipping her tea.

" You want some more? I have plenty." 

Diane hurriedly grabbed the kettle from the table and made her way behind the counter. Moments later, she came back with a fresh batch; but to her surprise the girl, including her belongings, were nowhere to be found as if she was never there at all. 

--

A few days later,  Diane was amongst the rustle and bustle of the Sunday lunch rush. She was standing behind the counter waiting for food to expo,  hushedly sharing the unusual happenings with her friend Amber, who was also a server at the diner. 

Amber let out a huff,  "Kids are weird, alright? Let it go or you'll drive yourself crazy. "

" Ugh, you're right. She was probably trying to creep me out or something, which she succeeded at by the way."

Amber cynically patted Diane on the shoulder,  " You're a little gullible, D."

Diane shrugged while grabbing the freshly placed food out of the window and headed towards the respective table.

As she was heading back behind the counter to run more food, something on the television caught her eye. 

A familiar smile illuminated on the screen with a banner stating, 'Missing teenage girl remains found alongside local river'. Diane violently grabbed for the remote and turned the volume up so she could hear more clearly. The news anchor, Tammy Fitzgerald, appeared seconds after. 

" The remains of a local teenage girl by the name of Kayla Morgenson were discovered today alongside the Dry Fork river early this morning. There is no suspicion of fowl play at this time. However, we will have more information on this story as it develops. The funeral for Ms. Morgenson will be announced in the coming of days."

Diane stood there, mouth agape, dazed and confused as to what she had just seen. Amber walks up to her and jabs her in the side with her elbow.

"Earth to D. We have shit to do, dude."

" That's the girl, Amber," she points to the screen. "That's the girl that was her the other night!"

"Quit messing, man. We're too busy to play your little mind games right now."

" I'm not playing games, Amber. I need to get to the bottom of this." 

Amber rolled her eyes and walked away.

--

Diane looked up the girl's obituary and, against her better judgement, decided to go to the funeral to pay her respects.

She walked wearily into the church and nonchalantly slid into the back pew in hopes that nobody would question who she was or why she was there.

A young man with swollen cheeks and red eyes walked up to the stand, clearing his throat as everyone took a seat, allowing him to speak. He pulls out a folded piece of paper from his inside coat pocket and clears his throat once again before continuing.

" Thank you, everyone, for coming to celebrate the life of Kay. She would have hated all of the attention and lime light, but she deserved every ounce of love that is being presented in this room today. 

For those of you who are unaware of who I am, my name is Elijah Jefferson. I am--was Kay's high school sweetheart of three years. We became partners freshman year and have been inseparable since. 

The most beautiful thing about Kay was her love for this world. She never focused on the negatives even though it seemed like it was always her against the world. However, she never let that taint her heart. She always stood tall and proud, ready to face anything and everything that stood in her way.

She loved nature. She always said that she found herself drawn to it because it brought her peace. It gave her a sense of belonging that society couldn't give her. Her heart is free from the perpetual weight that is living, only to roam free in her home amongst the trees where she will remain alive and carefree until the end of days."

Tears stream down his face as he steps down from the podium and walks briskly out the door. During the brief intermission before the next speaker, Diane slips outside behind him. She finds him sitting on the grassy hill overlooking the cemetery, slowly walking up beside him and quietly sitting down.

He looks over at her, "Who are you?" 

He manages to get out in between sobs.

"I met Kayla right before she passed. I work at Jimmy's diner and she came in for some tea. She seemed like a sweet girl, so I decided to stop by and pay my respects to her."

"Oh, yeah I know where that's at. I sometimes go there for lunch with the boys after basketball practice. I, uhm, lost my hoodie there I think, but I couldn't find it and Kayla was so furious with me because she loved that thing more than I think she loved me," he let out a little chuckle, " She was an amazing person and she would have appreciated you stopping by."

Diane smiles and nods her head. They sit there in comfortable silence for a few minutes before she finally works up the nerve to ask the question slowly burning up her insides.

"If it's not too intrusive of a question, how did she pass exactly?"

Elijah looked as if he was articulating the right response before speaking.

"Well, see Kay had, uhm, issues with her mental health. Her eyes were full of light and then over the years, they became more and more deem. One day, it was like the lights finally shut off and she wasn't in there anymore when you looked at her. I tried to help her. I begged and pleaded for her to try different treatments, go to therapy, the works and for a while it worked. She came back and everything was ok, ya know? I had my girl and I was figuring out how I was going to propose. I wanted to grow old with her."

He paused to wipe the tears off of his face with his coat sleeve and then continued, " She loved being in the forest. She said it helped her fight the demons inside her head. I would tell her that she didn't need to go out there by herself and I would be more than happy to join her, but she always told me no. She was so stubborn. She was so infuriating sometimes, actually, but I loved her so much. The other night, we got into an argument. She was closing herself off again and I was trying to pull her back to me, but the harder I tried, the further she drifted away inside her head. I told her I couldn't do this anymore with her, that I needed her here completely or not at all. Of course, I didn't mean it. I was so upset at the moment and wasn't thinking about what I was actually saying to her."

He cradled his knees to his chest, " The coroner said she drowned."

" Wait, she drowned?" Diane said, bewildered by what she was hearing.

" Everyone is guessing that she went into the forest by herself after school to cool off. She slipped, hit her head on a rock, and drowned in the river. She passed sometime after 5pm. I should have been there with her. I knew she would go there and I knew that was dangerous,  but I went to basketball practice anyway thinking everything would be fine and now I can't take it back. "

He started to weep,  holding his face in his hands while Diane tried desperately to understand how she saw the girl that night at the diner when the autopsy confirmed she had passed much earlier that day. Maybe she got confused with someone else, no. She knew that smile anywhere.  It was the kind of smile that went straight through you.

She glanced down at Elijah's worn out converse and noticed a heart etched into the white of his shoe, the same heart that she saw on the hoodie from a few nights ago. Suddenly, it all came together and her eyes widened in disbelief.

"She came back for his hoodie," she mumbled to herself.

Undoubtedly so, the girl from the other night had been none other than a passing spirit on a quest to collect a token of one of life's finest treasures-love.

"I know you feel the emptiness in your chest and the burden of regret on your shoulders, but just know, she continues  to love you very much."

"How do you know for sure?"

" Some things you just learn with age," she said in lew of running the risk of being labelled the town crazy. 

Diane never cared too much about the thoughts of others, but in this particular instance she wanted to keep what had happened that night at the diner to herself with the feeling that the experience was hers for a reason. She gives the boy a smile and gently pats him on the back, and then proceeds to walk away with contentment.