Poppies

Poppies

Peach Rosemary.

That was all. Leon was quick to wrote down the name of the girl on his dream on the note that had haunted him since few months ago. There was nothing he can do than to fell into his bed and put all of his thoughts on the unknown girl. He was delighted, all he wanted to do is to meet the girl in his dream and he feels very graceful to finally found the name of the girl.

             All he remembered was that the girl had a brown hair, tan skin, and protruding eyes. She’s stunning—he thought everyday on his mind. All he needed to do was to find Peach. So, he tried. He searched all over social medias and only to found none. He tried to tell this situation to someone but he only feared that they think he’s delusional or moreover, peculiar. 

             Not only he can see her on his dreams, but he can also hear the Peach’s thoughts on his daily life, whether she’s thinking about her school days, her divorced parents, and all of her depression thoughts. Leon could hear her cries, and feel her sadness on his body too. He worries about her almost all of the time. He was anxious if something could possibly happen to her. Leon always thought that this connection was far from incredible and they were indeed soul mates. I just need to find her, Leon thought.

             Days by days, Leon tried to searched for the girl on his dream however he still couldn’t find her. Thus, he decided to go to sleep again, he thought that sleeping might guided him to find Peach again. 

             So, there he was again, in the field full of scarlet poppies. Peach’s protruding eyes appeared in front of him once more. Leon could felt his heart ache from this side. He noticed that this was only a dream—he wished he can meet her physically in real world. 

             “Why are you crying?” Peach asked. Leon was quick to wipe his tears away from his face, barely noticed that he was indeed crying. Peach only spared a sweet smile to him and wiped his tears with her own hands. “I want to meet you,” Leon said through his cries. 

             Peach’s face changed into a doubtful one. “Follow the poppies around,” Peach said. Leon only frowned before he opened his eyes to saw the familiar ceiling on his room.Follow the poppies around, he recalled his dream. Leon was quick to searched what poppies are, only to found that poppies are flowers that has a symbol of sleep, peace, and death. Millions of thoughts are baffling his mind now but he will never give up to meet the girl of his dream. 

             Therefore, Leon justified his shoes and get ready to go to the bakery to buy some breads. He was gone for a walk until he noticed some familiar poppies on the bakery shop. Leon tried to shook away his thoughts and waited on the line behind the girl that was about to pay the nourishments. The girl checked all of her belongings on her bag only to found none. 

             “Oh I’m sorry, I need to cancel all of these. I think I left my purse at home,” The girl said before Leon noticed the familiar soothing voice that he admired. Leon hastily offered his money to the cashier. “It’s okay I will pay,” Leon said before they both made an eye contact at the same time. 

             “Leon Jupiter?”

             “Peach Rosemary?”

             The cashier only stared at two young people in skepticism. Leon couldn’t believe what he just saw. Peach only stared at the man with mullet hair in puzzled. The two of them then chose to take a walk together and talked about their affair together in much excitement, turned out both of them dreamed about each other but in different types of dreams. “So it turns out that those poppies are true, I truly met you from the signs that you’d gave me” Leon said.  

             “Poppies? Signs?”  Peach queried.

             Leon nodded. “Last night you told me to follow the poppies and I found them earlier on the bakery. I’d searched earlier that Poppies are flowers that symbolizes sleep, peace, and death, unique isn’t it?” 

             Peach only nodded, ignoring her negative thoughts away by staring on the man of her dream. Stunning—she thought. Black mullet hair, cheeky smile, dimples, and his raspy voice. All of them are exactly the same from the man that she always dreamed of. 

             Both of them shared their thoughts and talked about their own lives. It surprised Peach on how Leon sometimes could clearly hear her thoughts and her inner sadness. 

             “You can talk to me if you need someone you know, I’m here for you” Leon reminded her, cheeks slowly turning into a red flush. He rarely talked to girls since he’s a shy guy.  “I have an SAD, and basically all of mental illness” Peach said, suddenly. Leon frowned. “SAD?”

             “Social Anxiety Disorder. I can barely talk to people, and basically an introvert. Boring isn’t it?” Peach said. “Since you heard mostly everything about my daily thoughts, I’m guessing you knew that my parents are divorced and I didn’t have any friends”

              “I’m sorry,” Leon sighed. “And hey you’re not boring. I understand that life isn’t fair sometimes but all you need to do is to focus on the goods. If you focus on the pain then you will continue to suffer, but if you focus on the goods, you will continue to grow” Leon said. This man is the person that I’d always hoped to be by my side everyday, Peach thought. 

             “Inspirational words by an amazing person, I see” Peach smiled. Leon instantly blushed and smiled back at her. They locked their eyes together for awhile before Leon put his hands on her jaw and gave her a kiss. Peach immediately reacted to the kiss and kissed him back, in order to tell him that she liked him back.

             These lovers apparently didn’t know why they kissed in their first meeting. But all they knew was they were truly in love. And nothing could separate them. Everyday they met each other and had a date together happily, they always tended to ignored the people around them that spared them some odd glances toward them. Leon knew well that he could ruin himself a million little times just for the girl that he loved dearly. 

             Until one night, Peach suddenly gone. Leon was frustrated and tried to searched her, contacted her, and asked all of the people around the town about her. Not even one person knew about her, most of the people around the town ignored him caused they basically didn’t care. Leon began to have negative thoughts on his mind—could she possibly lied to him? Did she truly love him for all of these time?

             Leon had made a decision to go everywhere before he listened to his own intention to go to their first meeting place, the bakery. And there it was—a single note stuck to window glass of the bakery. 

             ’22 Oakland Ave, -P’

             Leon was quite bewildered at first, but he was completely positive that this note was from her. So he went to that unknown address and found a medium white house that’s certainly old. He knocked on the door twice before a man on her 50s opened the door and stared at him in peculiar way. “May I help you, kid?”

             “I’m looking for Peach Rosemary, sir” 

             The man’s face was quick to turned into a whiter shade of pale. “She died a few months ago, kid” The man said. Leon’s vision then turned into dark and it was full of pitch black.

             “I’m sorry mam,” Leon heard a woman voice until he opened his eyes to meet an unfamiliar white ceiling and looked around the room to see his mother and the nurse, his mother’s eyes were full of lament while looking to her son in sorrows. “Mom, I need to see Peach” 

             His mother closed her eyes and decided to seat on the side of the hospital bed with her son, “Leon, I need to have a conversation with you” His mother softly said. Leon only frowned and waited for his mother words. 

             “You have schizophrenia,”

             “No, I’m not. She’s real mom and we barely date,” 

             “The girl that you’ve been searching, Peach Rosemary, died a few months ago because of lung cancer,” His mother crossed her arms, ignoring the sniffles coming from her nose. “All of the people on this town knew you were acting kind of odd lately, Jupiter. At first I didn’t want to believed them when they came to our house while you were out there searching for the girl—they’d told me that you’ve been searching for the girl who fundamentally died and been walking around the town with you talking to yourself” She told Leon, aching heart came through her heart while looking at her sick son. 

             Leon couldn’t believe what he just heard. He was sure that she’s there, alive with her by his side for all of these time. He still remembered the way he touched her, kissed her, embraced her, or even in loved with her. She showed him colors when he couldn’t see one on his life. All of the dreams are lies and he felt like an idiotic fool now. He just realized why all people shared their odd gazed at him constantly—it’s because he’s delusional. 

             Leon only let out his shedding tears and left his vulnerable side to his mother. On a sunny day of July, he went to the flower shop to bought some red poppies before going to the famous graveyard of the town. He searched all of the graves by himself and found a grave of Peach Rosemary. It was hard to believed that the girl he loved died, He thought. He puts down the beautiful poppies to her grave and kneeled down to prayed for her. Leon stood up from the ground and saw Peach right in front of him, staring at him with much poignancy. They both shared mutual gazed for a moment until Leon decided to gave her a deep affectionate hug. Leon knew that this was all coming from his imaginations but he needed something to relieved his melancholy thoughts. 

             Maybe we can meet in the other lifetime, my dear Peach.