Be With You (3 page)

She was a
beautiful, young lady who had many suitors. She had been looking forward to
visiting her old home once again.

She had walked
along the path that led to her high school
..
It all
seemed very nostalgic for a moment She lay on the soft grass around the meadow
and took in the crisp air
..

She felt an urge
to explore the meadows. She followed her heart and she saw something under an
old oak tree.

She went towards
it and it was a wooden box.

It was as if her
memories had been jolted back
..

She took it,
placed it before her, and opened it.

The manuscript
had still been there.

She had buried
it some years ago. Wanting to forget about Danny
..

She had stood by
her window ledge
everyday
..waiting
for him to
arrive..
but
he
had never came..

 
Those years had been a hard time for her
..
She had grieved over her loss of Danny…

 
She had never had the chance to tell him
that she had always loved him. Over time, he had become just a memory which had
faded away as she grew older…

 
She kept the manuscript back into the
wooden box and carried the wooden box with her.

 
She would search for Danny. Wherever he
was, she would find him.

II.

DANNY

Chapter 6

Leaves

The day had been
somewhere in
Spring
. The flowers were blooming. One
could almost feel that romance was in the air
..

He
had always been observing her from afar
..
observing
the way she smiled..
the
way she laughed..
the
way she played with her hair..
the
way she tied her hair into plaits..

 
Danny was so shy. He would never have the
courage to tell her in her face that he did like her
..

 
He had first seen her in the library
..

 
She had told him that his books were
overdue at the counter
..

 
That was the first time Danny felt his
heart swell.

 
Day by day, Danny would go to the
library. He would sit, read a book and steal glances at her
..
He would borrow his books, just so that he could steal a longer glance at her
..

 
Soon, Danny felt that he could not
overcome his passion any longer
..

 
He decided. He had decided to express his
affection for her
..

He
would place a little leaf into the book, returned it via the book drop and hope
that
Adelie
would see it
..

 
He wrote little love poems in them
..
hoping
that she would see them..

 
He didn’t need her to feel the same way
about him
..
He was so ordinary.. He knew that if he
had confessed, she probably wouldn’t have felt the same way about
him
..
He
just wanted to look at her
from afar and love her from afar.

 
On that fateful day, Danny had been
early. He left the book into the
bookdrop
.

 
Just as when he was about to leave, he
saw her.

 
Standing right before
him.

 
She looked shocked.

 
Adelie
asked
him if he had been the one placing all those little poems into the book.

 
He nodded.
Feeling so
bashful.
He just stood there. Not knowing what to say or do.

 
Adelie
walked
away
..
without
saying
anything..

 
He was crestfallen…

 
Danny had stopped going to the library…
He had stopped writing to her
..

 
There was an empty gaping hole in his
heart.

 
He would stare blankly during
lessons
..thinking
about her..
thinking
about the way she laughed… thinking about the way
she smiled..
thinking
about the way she had walked
away..

 
Autumn was soon arriving… the leaves had
formed into a heap outside of his classroom…

 
He felt melancholic. All he could think
about was her.

“
Every
heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who
wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a
poet.”

?
Plato

Chapter 7

A Window Apart

Danny had
arrived in class to see a small envelope on his table
..

He wondered who
had written to him.

He opened it and
nearly fell out of his chair when he found out that it was from
Adelie
..

It had all
seemed like a whirl to him now.

Right after
class, he had followed the address on the envelope and walked there. He felt a
sense of urgency, a sense of immediacy, a sense of panic
..
He had to know why she had wanted to see him
..

There were rows
and rows of houses there. He got lost for a moment, and then he followed his
heart. He had found the place.

He looked around
for an opened window ledge and that was when he saw
Adelie
.

She was sitting
on her bed, appearing to be deep in her thoughts.

He walked
towards the window and he called out to her gently.

“
Adelie
…..”

His voice
trembled.

She stood up and
she walked towards the window.

Then, she broke
into a smile.

They stood a
window apart.

For the first
time, he had made a long eye contact with her.
A genuine eye
contact where she was not preoccupied with anything else.

Time had seemed
to come to a stop. The world was a whirl. Nothing seemed real anymore. The
feeling was just indescribable. It was so easy for Danny to feel mesmerized by
her. He waited for
Adelie
to speak. There must
had
been a reason why she had wanted to see him.

 
“ Let’s
try it out, Danny”

 
His mind
went blank. She had given him a chance! He would do anything to make her happy.
He beamed.

Danny reached
out his hand to
Adelie
from the window ledge and she
touched his hand gently.

Hand in hand,
just a window ledge apart…so far and yet so near…

“
And, in the end

The
love you take

is
equal to the love you make.”

?
Paul
McCartney

Chapter
8

Meadows

 
The days went by. Danny would ride his
bicycle to see her, once he had ended class.

 
That day, he had decided to do something
special for her. He had made a sandwich, packed it into a neat box, and paddled
away to find her
..

 
Adelie
would
wait for him in her
room
..popping
her head often to see if he had arrived yet..

 
He rang his bicycle bell when he was fast
approaching….to inform her that he was arriving
..

 
Ring…Ring
..

 
Adelie
got up
and she went over to her window ledge.

 
He placed his bicycle against the tree
outside her house, and went over to the ledge to help her over.

 
It was a very windy day. He pedaled
hard. It was
so
exhilarating as the wind gushed past
them. There was the beautiful scenery
..
the
off-beaten track and the meadows. She wrapped her hands
around his waist. Feeling so secure
..
as
if it were the only thing that mattered in the world..

 
They reached the most beautiful meadow in
the area. He placed a picnic mat over the soft grass and handed his sandwich to
her.

 
She beamed so excitedly and gave him a
hug so tight that he found it hard to breathe. He was happy when she was happy.

 
They watched as their kite flew in the
sky
..
high
above the air..

It
was near sunset when he plucked the courage to give her their first kiss
..

“
Love does not
begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a
war; love is a growing up.”

?
James Baldwin

Chapter 9

The Little Musical Store

 
 
Danny had always loved music. He could
play the piano, drums and the flute. His father owned a small store selling
second-hand musical instruments and it was from his father, that Danny had
begun to like music.

 
One day, after lessons had ended, Danny
took
Adelie
to visit his father’s shop. She stared at
the array of musical instruments. She caught sight of a wooden toy piano by the
corner and fell in love with it at first sight.

 
“You like that?”

 
Danny asked.

 
She nodded.

 
He led her to toy piano and begun playing
a simple melody for her. She clapped her hands in joy.

 
#C Major
,
#E
Minor

 
He then
began introducing some chords to her. She slowly followed his hands as he
patiently guided her.

 
“That will
be the first melody you learnt. I will be performing at the graduation concert.
I hope that you can be there.”

 
He said.

 
“I will.”

 
Adelie
replied.

 
“Okay now,
close your eyes”

 
Danny
said.

 
She did
so.

 
He
wrapped the toy piano up in a pink box, placed a red ribbon over it, and
presented it to her.

 
Unknown to
Danny,
Adelie
felt a trickle of blood running from
her nose and she quickly wiped it away with the tissue in her hands.
Adelie
loved that toy piano so much that she would spend
some time after school practicing on the melody that Danny had taught her.

“
Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have
nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.”

?
David Byrne

Chapter 10

The Graduation Concert