The girl stood at the fence quietly watching as the bus
rolled down the slope and out of sight. She had woken early that morning
because she needed to say that final goodbye. Needed to say something, though
she still knew not what. The previous night had been the beginning of the end:
a festive gathering of friends, though there contained a thread of sadness: it
had been the chance to farewell old friends and wish them well in the years to
come. For the girl, the young man had prolonged that farewell until the last
minute. She’d hoped to spend the morning with him, watching the sunrise over
the lake, bringing with it new hopes and new paths into the world.
Unfortunately she had watched the sun rise alone, unprotected from the chill
that was creeping through her veins.
As the bus rounded the corner and
was lost from sight, the tears the girl had fought so hard to hold back had
welled up and cascaded down her face. However she remained motionless, unable
to halt their course or quench their flow. It was possible that that had been
their final meeting. The last time he would stand before her humble and
distressed by her silence. The last time she would see him, hear him, laugh
with him, tease him, and be comforted by him. The last time she would watch as
a smile lit up his eyes and face
Her thoughts moved through the
approaching future in which he played no role. Already he was becoming little
more than a pleasant memory and the cause of a wonderful week. She knew he’d
never fade. The memories they shared were too precious and too important to
her: they were all she had to remind her of that idyll. But the last one was
most precious: as he stood waiting for the words to come to her, as the bus
stood waiting for him.
The sun’s embrace was now
warming; it curled around her back and lapped at her stained cheek. But the
girl felt nothing. She had already slipped into her memories for that last
embrace before he had disappeared into the still morning.
