We’ll Meet Again

 “Someone in India once told me that the flowers are laughing.”

“All of them?”

“Yes, all of them. Every flower you can think of.”

“And what did you say to him?”

“I told him I laughed along.”

~+~

“What do you dream of?”

“Painting a picture with words.”

“Why?”

“Because some words can’t be said.”

Her gentle laughter is like the soft sand in between her fingers.

“I’d paint the picture in soft, but vivid watercolours.”

“Why?”

“Because it has to be memorable. It can’t be forgotten.”

~+~

“Will you remember me in ten years?”

“I think we’d have to wait for that first.”

“Can’t you answer that now?”

“I’d like to, but I’d hate to think what I’d be doing ten years later to have to remember you this way.”

~+~

“Tomorrow will be better.”

“What if it’s not?”

“Then you say it again tomorrow. Because it might be; you never know. At some point, tomorrow will be better.”

~+~

“The night scares me.”

“I’ll hold you. You won’t have to be scared anymore.”

“Does that mean you’ll let go when the night is over?”

“I’ll hold you till the next night comes.”

~+~

“Nobody really cares about our existence. But they pretend. Sure, they pretend.”

“…but why?”

“Because people need people to care for them, too.”

“Why?”

“Because human beings are fragile creatures with needy desires for foolish emotions like love. And in the end, we are all alone because the people who told us they cared lied.”

“Why?”

“Because they too are human, selfish, desperate to feel loved.”

~+~

“How will you be remembered? By your footsteps when you come back from work? By the sound of running water in the bathroom when you wash your face? By the warmth you leave in bed when you leave in the mornings?”

“I want to be remembered like the ocean.”

“The ocean?”

“Like water at your feet, and the waves tugging gently at your legs when you lie to sleep. Maybe, like the sand in your hair too. That’ll be difficult to wash away. I want to be remembered as everything around you.”

~+~

“What do you think of spring?”

“Spring? It’s like the start of eternity, where fresh flowers grow and birds wake you up in the morning with their morning song. It’s like a taking a deep breath and opening your eyes to a whole new world. It’s like falling in love.”

“But the seasons change. Spring will end.”

“But never forgotten. We all have to know that one day, you’ll wake up to the spring on your doorstep again.”

~+~

“How strong do you think the wings of airplanes are?”

“Strong enough to take people away and bring them back to where they belong.”

“Parachutes?”

“What about them?”

“Do you think parachutes will catch our falls?”

“No, they sustain us in the air until we know what to do with our lives. When we’re ready, we take the plunge and hope to survive.”

“But I don’t want to survive, I want to live.”

“We’re all living in some other way. We don’t always have to live like this. I know I’m living somewhere in you, as you are in me.”

~+~

“I don’t want to die.”

“No one really ever dies. We’ve been given a lifetime to make us memories, and memories don’t just die.”

“They fade away.”

“We make memories with those memories. If it’s vivid enough, they won’t fade away.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m very sure.”

“Then will you make memories with me?”

“Haven’t I always?”

~+~

“Do you believe in love?”

“I believe in love like how some people believe in fairy-tales.”

“Why? How do you know it exists?”

“You don’t. But it’s just there. You can feel it, though, but you won’t know it’s there until it passes by you.”

“How come?”

“Because along with it, there’s this special feeling that’s different to everyone. I feel like fresh spring when it comes.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it doesn’t make sense, but it all will someday.”

~+~

“What if it goes wrong?”

“Nothing goes wrong without a reason. Even if it does or doesn’t, we’ll always meet again.”

“Promise me that.”

Lips press to her hair.

“What haven’t I already promised to you?”

There’s a soft smile in the early morning. Hands come up to gather the blankets around her.

~+~

“Are you scared?”

“Fear is irrelevant. I’m worried.”

“Why?”

“What will you do?”

The question is understood by the silence.

“I’ll wait until we meet again.”

~+~

“I want to die at spring.”

“Spring?”

“Because you said it’s the start of eternity. I want to die listening to the morning larks and laughing with the flowers.”

“I’ll always remember you that way.”

“You know, when you told me you met that guy in India, I thought you met Ghandi.”

Their eyes meet, and when they don’t turn away, it feels like forever.

“Wisdom is like love itself. It seems so simple, but it’s not. It’s the complexity in its simple nature that makes it so contradictory.”

~+~

“Hey, Jessi?”

“Yes?”

“Is it spring yet?”

“It’ll come soon enough. When you close your eyes and open them again, spring will be around you.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because if you love spring that much, it’s yours. But it’s the only spring that others can’t take away. It’s the only kind of spring that only you have, and it’s yours forever. And that spring is beautiful to no one but you.”

“Should I close my eyes now?”

“If you want to, darling. I’ll hold you.”

Arms slip around her waist, and she feels shaky breaths against her back.

“Spring is so beautiful.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Do you have your own spring, Jessi?”

“I do, where the flowers are laughing and I’m sitting in a field full of sunflowers. There’s a blue sky ahead of me, and the ocean next to me.”

“It sounds wonderful.”

“How’s your spring?”

“It has never felt better.”

~+~

“She deserves to be happy.”

“And now she finally is. She’s living in spring, you know. I see her in my spring every now and then. She has flowers in her hair, and a smile on her face. And believe me, she’s happy.”

“What did you say to her?”

“I told her, we’ll meet again.”

~+~

—ジュリエット