Love Story – The girl on the swing
Photo credit: aophotos from morguefile.com
With a loud cry of pain, Daniel woke up on his couch. Beads of sweat coated his forehead and his whole body felt warm. His gaze lifted up towards the old clock hanging on the wall, and then hurried himself after looking at the time.
He was running late.
He pulled on his gray sweater hiding the bandages beneath. He took his appearance in the full-length mirror by his bedside and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to make it presentable. Picking up the worn out edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from his desk, Daniel stuffed it inside his bag pack and ran out of his house.
After a walk of 10 minutes, he reached the threshold of his school. He walked around the wall surrounding the building until he reached the dense area full of mid-height plants and shrubs. His pace became slow and he took every step carefully as if walking on egg shells. He tip toed over to the clearing situated midst the bushes and shrubs and sat down on the ground hiding himself behind a tall plant.
Pushing aside a thorny branch of the thicket, he looked over to the huge bulky tree planted in the clearing and there she was.
Norah.
Her frail figure swayed lightly along with the swing that she was sitting on, her blue floral dress trailing behind her. She tucked her long hair behind her ear but it cascaded down again. Daniel smiled at the sight. He loved the color of her hair. It reminded him of Autumn when everything has a beautiful orange glow to it.
He pulled out his book and continued from where he had last left. She was reading the same book as him, or maybe it would be more appropriate to say that he was reading the same book as her. He had never been much of a literature kid but reading, while sitting there with her, provided him with his much needed peace, even if she had no idea about his presence.
He looked up again to see her running her slender finger along the lines of the book while a smile blooming slowly on her face. By then, he had learned that ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was her favorite book. He had seen her reading it a thousand times and reacting at every part that she read. Sometimes she would frown probably at the rudeness of Mr. Darcy and sometimes she would smile, reading the cheesy declarations of love exchanged between Elizabeth and Darcy.
That was another thing that he loved about her, how transparent her face was, giving away everything she felt inside.
It wasn’t that Daniel had never thought of going up to her to introduce himself but he just couldn’t make himself do it. He thought of her as a perfect symbol of innocence, reading there oblivion to the dark truth of the outside world. He had this scenario in his head that if he went close to her then he would taint her with his pain and sorrow somehow. So he felt content just sitting there and watching her read. He believed that he could carry on with his life including all the problem, only if she allowed him to see her there everyday.
Daniel still clearly remembered the day he found about this place. It was around 3 years ago, his step-father was drunk again and afraid getting beaten by him again, Daniel decided to run away for the day. After stalling around the neighborhood, he had decided to explore the area around his school and that was when he had stumbled to that place.
Seeing her sitting there on the swing calmed him. He had gone there again the next hoping to see her again and was ecstatic when he did. After a few days, he had decided to take a book of his own to read. Soon, days transformed into weeks and later into months but no matter what, he would always find her there after school. Soon she became the only constant thing in his life that provided him happiness.
Unknowingly, she had helped him to heal his emotional scars. Everyday the pain would hurt less than the previous day and everyday he would thank her in his mind.
‘Was it love?’ Daniel wondered. ‘Is it even possible to be in love with someone who doesn’t even have a clue of my existence?’
But Daniel chucked the question aside. He didn’t want any answer for that. He just wanted her to be there, nothing else.
The next day when Daniel went back to the place she wasn’t there. He waited for her till late at night but she never came, or the next day after that. He tried to find her in school but never succeeded. After a month, a friend of hers informed Daniel that she had left the town and had shifted to England. It was like all the breath was knocked out of him and the ground beneath him had been pulled away. He wasn’t able to comprehend why his life was taking one wrong turn after the other.
That evening he went back to the clearing with a heavy heart. He stood near the plant behind which he used to hide behind. He didn’t go any closer to the tree or the swing. It just didn’t feel right. For him, it was a sacred place ahead, which was out of his reach. He just stood there, doing nothing. His mind and heart still hung on the hope that she would come back someday and then everything would fall back in its place.
That was the last time he ever went there, until now.
Today, he didn’t just stand at the boundary. He walked towards tree looking at the swing which perfectly symbolized his condition. Broken beyond repairs. The place felt dead to him. It was no more the place that he held in his memories.
And neither was she.
Yes, his hopeful heart was right. She was back but she was a complete different person now. She didn’t come to the clearing to read anymore. Instead, now she preferred to hang out with the popular crowd of the school. Her hair no more reminded Daniel of Autumn. She had colored them in a much darker color which he despised. Her genuine smile that he had missed so much over the year was now replaced with a fake one, just to fit in with the popular crowd. Her change was bothering him beyond imagination. He felt as if someone had taken a part of his soul and replaced it with a new one which he didn’t like at all.
Suddenly, a realization hit him like a strong wave. He did love her. A sad laugh erupted from him.
‘What a wrong timing to realize it after I’ve already lost her,’ he thought to himself.
Feeling his legs to be trembling, he sat down near the roots of the tree. He rested his head on the trunk and allowed the tears to escape from his eyes. He never cried but at that moment he didn’t care.
Today he was lamenting for his lost love, he was lamenting for his life.
__END__
