“Today someone mentioned your name and my heart forgot how to beat for just a moment. I stood rooted to the spot, ears straining hard to listen and know what has become of you.
I remember every night for 365 nights I waited for your call. Hour by hour my nights dragged on, I cried so hard that my pillow would be soaked, only to turn it over so I could cry some more. Every night I cried until there were no more tears left to cry, until the tears dried out. I woke up every afternoon in a daze, forgetting for one precious instant you were gone.
They say you got married. My heart shatters and my mind curses the woman who gets to wake up beside you every morning. Then I frantically wish I could take the curse back because I love you and I want you to be happy. Now I wonder who she is and why it was her and not me. You were my all. The first few days you were gone, I felt like the oxygen in my lungs were very slowly drawn from my every breath until I was suffocating.
They say you have a child. My shattered heart blackens to ash. Now 3 years on. My cheeks are hollow, eyes sunken in, the bones on my body protrude in the most disturbing manner.
Even if you saw me again you would never know it was me. In a big baggy jumper with the hood pulled over my head, you would walk straight past me and probably drag your child out of reach of this troubled being that I have become.
A gust of wind carries the ashes from my heart into the distance as I am left hollow as a discarded shell. I hear them say the child’s name is Melody. I instantly know it is you who named this child. You named your daughter after the child we never had, but she would have been called Melody, just like the music that escapes through my fingers across the black and white keys.
Now, for the first time in 3 years, I smile. For I know, every time you look at your daughter, you remember me in her name. I knew you loved me, but I died the day that you left me, you never had the chance to tell me you were sorry and you loved me. But I know now, I can stop haunting this world and be free as the Phoenix ashes of my heart are reborn again…”
Written by Ling Lee (07/03/13).
I’m not really sure how this piece ended up this way. I started off wanting to hate the woman he ended up with and being a bitter ex, but now I guess all is forgiven and I live again?
I love how fiction gives us endless possibilities. How words on a page can transform your life into anything your imagination can create.
The Lost Girl 