Destined love unearthed

Destined love unearthed
By Merike Malan

It was the summer of 1996 when Jimmy and I found a special place, our special place, where everything got quiet and all our stories became true…

It started off like any ordinary day. Jimmy and I were playing hopscotch when we heard an awful, screeching sound coming from inside the woods. Obviously, Jimmy wanted to go and see what it was and so it came that a minute later we were standing in front of the most spectacular tree I have ever seen.

It was an ancient tree rooted deep inside the ground with a broad trunk majestically towering over all the other trees.

We used to spend all our time under its branches, but we grew up and started living our own lives, never visiting our tree again. We forgot the times we spent together and most importantly, we forgot the promise we made…

It’s the night before metric farewell and I keep on tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep. Still battling to fall asleep, I hear the same screeching sound I heard so many years ago. I have to follow it.

“Jimmy…”, my voice reflecting the confusion on my face, “…what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”.

He doesn’t say a word, his only movement is his fingertips following the engraved letters J E.

“What’s wrong?”, this time revealing my concerns.

“You remember all the times we used to joke around telling each other we were going to get married?”, he finally says.

“Yes, I do. Is that why you’re here?”.

“No, I heard that screeching sound again and as always I had to come and see what it was.”.

A short pause followed.

“Elena…?”, his voice soft and tender. “What happened? Why don’t we speak to each other any more? Why did we break our promise to be friends forever?”.

I turned away slowly realising what had happened. We got so involved in our own lives we forgot about each other.

He brought his hand to my face holding my chin in his gentle hand. I looked up into his green eyes clearly visible in the moonlight. He took my hand and quickly swayed me around catching me just before I hit the ground.

“You know what I realised tonight?”, he asked.

“No, what?”, I replied.

“I broke my promise because I don’t want to be your friend, I want to be more than your friend, Elena.”, he whispered bringing his face close to mine.

And for that moment everything around us got quiet turning our childhood story into reality.