The Sound Of A Girl

This room is unfamiliar. I don't know how I got here. I lift myself up from the hard wooden floor and look up, my head throbbing. I see a brown ceiling fan spinning. I focus on it, counting how many times it passes a certain flower on the wallpaper.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

It calms me. I decide I'm calm enough to examine my surroundings. So I do. I'm in a square room. The fading wallpaper has hundreds of daffodils etched on it. I smile and wince as it brings a memory. A girl with long red hair, tinged blue at the edges, standing in a field of daffodils. She has a heart shaped face, skin the color of the daffodils, and sharp blue eyes, one a lighter shade than the other. She's glaring at me but I can see love in her eyes, as her face is suddenly enveloped by a smile. It's a memory that I can't face.

So, instead I turn to my surroundings to escape. There, in the corner of the room lies a wooden desk with the initials V.B and D.H carved into them. I smile as the memory comes again at this, but this time I push it away harder. On the desk is a sheet of paper and a small black pen. Beside the desk is a simple metal stool, lying on its side.

I close my eyes and listen. There's the ceiling fan, it's repetitive swish a comfort. But, listing more intently I hear something else. Footsteps. Barely noticeable at first, but slowly they climb in volume. Then they are accompanied by the quiet swing of a door, and then the click of it closing.

I hear a scrape. The stool as they sit down upon the desk. The swish as they adjust the paper. And the repetitive scribbles of the pen. I remain still and listen to the pen for a few minutes.

Then, suddenly they stop. And I hear the scrape, and the footsteps accompanied by the swish of the door, and the click when it closes. It is only when I hear the footsteps fade away into nothingness that I open my eyes.

I see the small changes by the figure. The stool, the pen, the note have all been moved slightly. And in my head I hear curiosity win over reason.

"Its simple," my brain tells me. Honestly, it doesn't feel simple. But I manage it. One foot in front of the other. I'm moving for the first time since I woke up here.

After what seems like an eternity, I make it to the desk. I see that the sheet has been written on. I sit down on the stiff stool, and begin to read the loopy handwriting.

"Dear Daffodil Hart," theres a flutter in my heart at my name.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to go through this.' For the first time since I woke up here, I'm afraid. But I'm not sure of what I'm afraid of.

"I know it's been hard for you. But i want you to know that even though I'm gone," and suddenly my mind is consumed by the girl in the daffodil field. By Valirie Bhadoria.

"I will always be here. I have seen how you have closed yourself away." Memories of sleepless nights come to me, being scared of the world itself.

"But regardless of if I'm there or not, live, feel the pain from my loss." For the first time since it happened I feel a tear run down my face. And I don't stop it. And the memory comes like a flood.

Walking home with Valirie, laughing at the movie we had seen.

We were at a crosswalk.

It was taking forever.

Valirie was getting frustrated.

Then a smile came to her face.

I loved that smile.

She started to run across.

She even stopped in the middle.

I was laughing and telling her to come back.

She just stood there and laughed with me.

We didn't see the car until it was too late.

I'm crying now. But suddenly, I look up and the room is no longer unrecognizable. It's Valirie's room. The room I spent half my childhood in. I turn back to the letter and read the last line

"Live like the world ends tomorrow,

Valirie Bhadoria"

ONE YEAR LATER

Daffodil breathed deeply as she walked, taking in the forest air around her. She smiled as she listened to the birds chirp around her, the gurgle of the little river, the crunch of the leaves at her feet. She squinted as the sun shone through the trees into her eyes. She chuckled as she tripped on a root remembering a certain someone who would and trip and proceed to swear at that root all the time. She knelt and examined a bit of fungi on her path. She ran her hand on the trees as she had done so oh so long ago.

As she walked she reflected. On every time she had walked this path with Valirie. On how Valirie had loved pizza and always insisted on pineapple pizza being go, no matter how many times Daffodil argued with her. On how excited Valirie had been when she dyed the tips of her hair blue, how it matched her left eye. How Valirie loved to run her hand through Daffodils brown pixie cut and call her caramel because of her skin.

Daffodil felt a tear run down her cheek as she noticed that she had reached her destination. She sat down in the field of daffodils. And she made a promise.

She folded her hands in her lapped, brushed the tears from her her cheek, smiled and spoke.

"Valirie," a bird nearby chirped as if responding.

"I promise that I will live."

"That I will cry."

"I will do my best to honor you."

"I will try to help other as you helped me."

"That I will love."

"And that I will always love you."

"Goodbye."

THE END TILL NEXT TIME I WRITE YOU AGAIN