She left one day without a word or any sound. She left as if she hadn’t stayed—no fuss, no frills.   There was no one to hear her, or to stop her—not even me. It was very sudden.   *   I enter the empty room where she last slept. I see the queen-sized bed and lie on it. I feel her clothes. I touch them. I reason that, since her clothes are here, she might come back to get them, so I can see her one last time, to say goodbye.   But she never came back. I waited for forever.    *   “You know what my biggest dream is?” She asks one morning. I watch her stare into space. I took a couple of minutes before I could ask. Her eyes bore into mine and smile. “I want to see the world.”   I hear the faint sound of her slurping into the coffee mug. Back then, I thought it was a joke—a funny one. I never took it seriously, for it sound too childish to me.   But now, I have to admit, when left, she even took my whole world with her.   *   I was falling in love. I gave her flowers. I held her hand. She kissed me. They are soft unfamiliar touches. She didn’t pull back, neither do I. With her, I feel more than safe.    But I never told her. I never got to see or hear what her reaction was.   It was a case of unrequited love.   *   They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops, and that’s true.   She came into my life like a rain in the drought—unforeseen and unpredicted.   She ran away. She said and she needed some place to crash in for a day. She told me she was harmless. I laugh and let her in.   Days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into Months.   “It’s okay,” was my always my response if she’d apologize for over staying. “I could use some company.”   She would press her lips together and smile, “komawo.” She’d always say.   *   I heard a breaking glass in the kitchen. I went outside and ran to her. She was at floor, bleeding and crying. Frenzied and crazed.   She was crying even more. I asked her to s