Inspirations by inspirations flows in my head, spilling it out and I just wanna express this inspirations through modern literature, short stories. This is my first short stories published to be seen by everyone. Four Season's of Us... Enjoy...^^
Ward 6B. Silence,
no distractions, without any noises. Just a murmur from the patients and
nurses, roaming inside the ward. At the corner, a distant figure in his early
twenties, a guy anxiously waiting. Eyes on the operation door, waiting for
something, somewhat. What is it? Anybody’s guess.
As the maple
leaves fall down to the ground, he thought to himself. Autumn ,when it all
crumble to ground. Where life would meet the death, of what every meet would
come and they had to say goodbye.And at there, he held close a paper. A piece of what he is. A piece of what he waited for so long. A piece of what he think might be the last for her...
****
8.35pm on the Saturday night, and Jason walk down the street
of Los Angeles, shivering and cold, crossing his arm across his body in mild
winter. Almost few hours left before Christmas and he is on his way back home
at the Fifth Avenue. What he could
bought from the grocery is just some Christmas treats, cookies and a warm Turkey meat. All by his own, as he
celebrate Christmas alone- for the second time.
On his trail
back home, his eye pick up something interesting. Christmas landmark, the huge
Christmas tree; might be forty fifty feet above the ground, beautifully
decorated with neon lights, colourful ribbons, Santa’s, stars and all sorts of decorations all over the tree. And
underneath part of it, there’s a lot of paper, knotted neatly at the fig,
wished by people of LA; said that when we wrote our Christmas wishes on a paper
and knot it at the Christmas fig, your wish will come true. He knows none of
that is true, but he reach out a red paper and a pen, wrote what he wanted at
that moment and knot in onto the figs.
And when he
turns to resume his way-
He bumped
into someone and fell down at almost the same time. As he rubbing the aching
part of him, a hand lend to him. He tilted his head above and saw a lady. That
lady he had bumped into. He gave his hand to that lady and straighten his back
up, stand up and pick up his groceries.
“I’m truly
sorry for that...” that lady kept on continuing.
“It’s okay.
I’m alright.” Jason kept on saying the same script over and over again. He
helped her with her luggage and gave it to the lady. That lady thanked him,
saying sorry once more and kept on going her way, rushing to be exact.
But then, he
noticed something above him. A mistletoe above them a few while ago. And he knew
he would be going to see her again somehow. And that is what he hold onto on
the eve before Christmas.
****
As the snow
faded, ice melted and flowers popped out with the shine of the Sun, Jason
prepared to go through his third semester, his second year as a student, taking
Degree in Medical Engineering at the University of Los Angeles. And as he kept
looking and studying his Calculus book, he heard a somehow familiar voice.
“Hye!”
Jason tilted his face and saw the
owner behind that particular voice. As what he expected, it was that lady he
bumped into on that last Christmas. He grinned and replied back with a hye.
“Wait a second...” that lady said.
“What is it?”
“Are you Jason Ngu, that nerd boy during elementary school ten
years ago?” she asked.
“Erm, yeah?” Jason answered,
embarrassed.
“Hye Jason! I’m Claudia. That Claudia
with that huge glasses!”
“Right...” Jason unsure of it. She seemed
to know it.
“That Claudia with two ponytails,
always sitting down the maple tree?”
“Owh right! Claudia...! Claudia Truman,
right?!”
“YES!”
From there, they bond a Long-Lost-Found friendship, and funny
when they instantly keep on growing closer and closer, having lunch, study and
walking down to their campus together. Funny when they found at the elementary
school as a stranger-that-I-know, and reunion at the Christmas tree, only to
found out during Calculus class. Sharing each other’s secrets and sometime,
slandering people at the back. Funny...
At that moment, she told Jason
something, a secret known only by few of Claudia’s friends and families.
“What would you like to tell me?” he
asked.
She hesitated at first.
“If you don’t want to, I’m okay with –“
“Wait! There’s something you would like
to know another piece of my life.”
And she told her untold, undeniable
secrets that she can’t contain no more. Hard, slow yet understood by Jason. Her
Once-A-Happy relationship with a guy.
Randolph is his name. She told him that she would have given another chance to
Randolph, and still she kept on waiting for him.
But then, Claudia coughed so hard,
Jason saw something bad. Seriously bad. A tiny spots of blood stuck in his
view. She coughed in blood... and he asked himself, what would the next bad
thing happen next?
****
Alarm clock rang loudly, shattering the
silence in the room. A hand reached out and pushing the alarm button back. He
woke up, stretch his back, his head and his arm. Yawning and adjusting his
pants and pyjamas, he walked to the shower, dress up and having his usual
bacons and egg with a cup of Arabica coffee. Perfect.
Dress
up with his vest and fedora hat, he drove to cinema and
waited for Claudia to show up. He knew the ladies ‘rule’: When she said she
would show up in thirty minutes, she meant like almost one hour, because they
would take more time to look more outstanding. He giggled a bit of that feminine
facts, and kept on waiting at there.
Almost
three hours and still haven’t arrived yet, he reached out his HTC One smartphone , searching for her
name in his contact list, and pushed the Call
button. But no avail. Called her once more, and the call being diverted. He
tried to call her a dozen time but seemed that he cannot reach her phone. With
a sigh, he drove his Mercey away from the cinema, cancelled his plan he had
done with her for the last three weeks.
Daylight
passed and moonlight emerged, he grabbed his phone again in the midst of his
assignment. With his table light flickered and a warm Arabica coffee, he tried
to call her again and again, and still he cannot reach out to her. It continued
for another two days but still, she have not picked up the line.
After
few days, Claudia called him.
First
call, missed. Second call, missed. The third, he answer it in a split second.
“Hello,
Clau... What happened? Where were-“
“Randolph
rejected me.”
“Why?”
And
she explained everything from the early until the moment when she called off
her phone, tears dripping over her cheek and she sobs all night. What Jason
could do at that moment is to hear her. He cannot understand her situation. He
cannot understand what she had been through, and no matter what, he cannot
understand her. He can’t even offer a help to her. But at least he could help
her by hearing her problem, and possibly run his thumb across her cheek and
saying that she’s strong enough to go through this.
An
empty silent, distance over blocks away and he wished that he could be by her
side, hug her close, and comfort her with whatever he could do. Just a few
words. Few moment, and that’s what he wanted the most.
At
that very moment, he heard a hush, then he could hear Claudia suffocating , a
loud thump and –
Blank.
She called it off. In a heartbeat, he reach out his Mercey car key, put his
phone inside his pocket, ran away as fast as he could. He drove away fast that
he doesn’t care anything except for her because he knew something was wrong.
All he wanted is just to save her, no matter what. He could hear his heart thumping
fast. All he could do is just hoping that she is safe, while reaching to 911...
****
Right now, all he
could do is muster his faith and confidence and fight his anxiety off him. He
cannot sit down for a long time, he cannot even stand up straight. He asking
himself: What happened to Claudia? What secret did she hide from him? Is really
she having a medical condition? Is he still cannot be fully trusted by her to
reveal her untold secret? Why she doing all this? And he nod, sigh of what he
had been through. An epic, ironic and melancholic stories to be told.
Wait. Why he seems to care Claudia so
much?
He thought of that for a moment, and
his heartbeat seems to be thumping faster, as if his own heart answer to each
and every questions he ask himself. Every monologue, every heartbeat.
From distant, Randolph walked
fast-paced toward Jason. Holding a bunch of white lilies, he showed up in front
of him.
“How’s Claudia? Is she okay?” Randolph
asked.
“Still the same for the last four
weeks. Unconscious,” Jason answered.
“How’s the surgery?”
“They just finished operating her.
Doctors said there’s a fifty-fifty possibility that she would live as the
results of the operations because her lung cannot properly functioning to pump
the blood over the body. Too much risk to gamble. She’s now closely monitored
right now.”
Randolph sigh and shakes his head. He
knew so much that he shouldn’t do this. He blame himself for being so stupid,
so dumb to realised what Claudia had done for him; the waiting, the reject, the
sad moment of her and now unconsciousness, and yet his ego and pride over his
own realisation. He blame himself for all of those. But what to do? There’s no
use feeling so guilty of himself after all those moments shatter pieces by
pieces.
“Hey, Jason.”
“Yeah? What?”
“Could you please give this lilies to
her, as soon as she awake? It’s her favourite,” Randolph hand over the lilies
to Jason before he take his leave. Jason trail across Randolph until his figure
gone, swept away by dim light at the end of the ward’s corridor.
He walked to the outside, to the
hospital park and look across the maple leaves, falling slowly, freely, sway by
the soft wind that blow across the park. He pick up a leaf, and watch its
texture, its complexation, colour and somehow he flashback the moments when he
first bumped into her, moments when she greet her during Calculus class, of how
they become friend, and a good friend; and he did not realised that he already
fall for her on that very moment.
He took that paper he held close just
now from his pocket. Crumbled and read almost a thousand time, he read it
again:
Jason,
I do think that I need to tell you about
this. About what’s between me and Randolph. We met, we know, we love and all
that is good. But suddenly, he disappear. No call, no text, and all he could
said before is that he studied at LA, while I’m at New York at that moment.
And
so I waited for him for four years, feeling stressed out, anxious, crying every
night and over-thinking what he might done at the other side. All those crying,
sobering and stress developed what I’m afraid the most...
Jason,
I’m diagnosed with lung cancer.
Seriously,
Jason. I don’t know what you might react, but this is the truth. Result of
those waiting for four years...
So
I moved to LA, convince him to give me another chance to prove I’m still worth
for him, and from there I’m going to tell him the truth. Just to spend the my
last moment with him. How foolish I am, moving to the other side of State, just
to tell her man that she used and she still love, that she will die in the
matter of moments.
It’s
not that I’m not trusting you when I don’t tell you about my medical problem,
no... I do have my own reason for all of this, and that reason is you, Jason. I
realised something, Jason. Randolph is not that guy. I knew that it was you,
from that moment you comforted me, and I never felt something like that, Jason.
Giving encouragement and saying that I’m strong enough to go through this...
And
here I am, writing this letter because I know I don’t have much time left...
And if I’m awake at the bed, I wanted to see your concern face, so that I could
smile and laugh, knowing that I still have that guy I love by my side.
But
I wake up somehow at the broad green field at the Heaven above, I will close my
eyes once more and wait for the moment, where you would smile next to me at the
Paradise... :’)
I Love You...
Sincerely,
Claudia
****
From
a distant, that exact figure approaching the familiar side. Jason, now passing
a month, standing at that sae Christmas tree, glittering and shining bright
colourful light, as what it used to be one years ago. Of that same spot where
he knotted that letter and accidently bumped into a stranger, known as Claudia
Michelle Truman. But now, she’s away...
He sigh, shake his head in disbelief
and reaching out his letter from his pocket. That letter, given by Claudia to
him hours before she motionless, unconscious, and sway away with darkness.
But then-
Two taps on his left shoulder. He turn
around before he saw her. Claudia Truman with her usual cute expression. What
he could do is just grinning. A smile craved on both of their face.
“Hey, look what I found!” she said.
“What is it?” Jason asked.
Claudia grabbed a piece of red paper,
crumbled by pressure of time and read it.
“I
wish I have someone accompany me on every Christmas...”
Instantly, he knew those words. It was
his wishes he knotted last year. And he began to realised, no wonder she rushed
away so fast last year. It is because she took the letter from that same fig he
knotted into. But what to do, what’s done is done, but he owned her something
couples doing... Smiling is all they could do before they embrace each other
under the same mistletoe.
They both knot a tag by that same
Christmas tree, the witness of a great love story bond between a guy and a lady
who once they bumped into. Together before they held each other’s hand and walk
away. While then, the tag they both knotted said:
Love,
best Christmas present ever, for the four seasons of us... Jason &
Claudia... <3
-THE END-
