Frozen Cherry Trees

I´ve waited almost over a year to know the ending of this story. I must say I love it and the open ending -that I never really expected- makes it perfect, I think. This one I owe to one of my friends that happily -for me- has decided to finish this little story. I could make such a huge comment on this now but I´ll just say that everytime I read it -which to be honest have been lots of time- it provokes different thoughts. I like it at lot. Thanks for letting me share this one G! 

here it is:

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It was a snowy afternoon. I was coming back from school; well I was there but my mind somewhere else. Snowflakes were falling through the frozen cherry trees. I did not know why but I felt strange that afternoon, kind of distressed for all that was going on. Lost in thought I was, when suddenly the mirage of a scream echoed my ears...

Not a chance to think! I just noticed I was running through the woods looking for a sob that seemed to be closer and closer. I was cold, my mind in blank and my skin cried those scarlet tears as I dashed inside the crystallized branches. I fell down while stepping the roots again and again...but my will did not abandon me. I was as stubborn as ever. After minutes of anxiety...There she was...

Crying and injured, mostly lost. She just saw me abruptly stopping her crying and clang into me sobbing with relief as if an angel had come to the rescue. More snow crystals falling and a cool breeze allowed her dark long hair to tickle my cheek... Then I took her face with my hand, gently caressing it and looked into those deep blue eyes... Then time stopped. We just stood there for so long... looking at each other as if we were telling our lives. It did not matter how cold it was, how strong the wind was blowing. We stood like that until the down warned us it was time to return. All the way back, she did not let my hand go and I was not willing to let her go either. The lights on the street announced our arrival to the real world and just a few steps from it I heard her sweet but determined voice: Tomorrow under the frozen cherries...I’ll be waiting for you...Really! And she left. I just could not believe what just happened and stood there watching her back until the only light for my eyes were the street footlights.

On my way back home, my feelings were mixed. I felt as if all types of feelings had just shot my soul turning it into pieces. Yes, I was puzzled and scared but in some way happy. Now I had something to avoid reality.

I arrived home: same story, same dinner, and same furniture... the broken cup just as I left it. I still don’t get why I don’t accept the present me, I´m always having stupid hopes that something is going to be different. That someone is waiting for me.  This is another night in my solitude. But something has changed inside of me. In some way I don’t feel so lonely. I can feel this warmth in those touched spots of my skin. My head still freezes with those delicate fingers playing with my hair. And that voice so sweet, so overwhelming, And what about those eyes...so deep so charming, enhancing such a beautiful pale skin.  The face of an angel...

Got to stop fantasizing! Lost in my so called thoughts, the old door is knocked...

I open up with a cold attitude. My ice is melted by the wings of my daydreaming.

There she was...standing in the frozen air of the night...

My eyes could not believe it, the fact that someone was actually visiting.

In the middle of my mental gap, her trembling lips asked:

-May I come in? It’s...cold.

Again, my physical reaction is faster than my brain cells coordination. I wish it were the opposite.

I just provide enough space for her to come in. And as soon as I close the door, she clings onto me again, kisses my cheek and says: I have missed you.

Lots of thoughts are running all over my head. I give her a hug too, puzzled as a Chinese in the middle of Manhattan. After a few seconds, I ask the supposed question with a hesitant and low voice:

-Why?...no I mean... How? How can you miss me if we have just seen each other once?

Falling apart, I add with a logical and serious expression: -I don’t even know your name!

Showing brightness I’ve never seen before in her eyes, she just sits in the old coach and starts to drink my halfway tea... My face is hot and I just blush for the first time in my life having a premonition that this won’t be the last time. After four sips of my, well now her tea and cleaning her lips with a pleasant tongue, she replies: -Because...I am like you.

That’s it! She did it. She’s making my nerves boil. I know my forehead’s like fire but still I shout:

-How on earth are you going to appear in the middle of the night and say something like “because I’m like you” to avoid the question of the owner of this warehouse?!    

Yes, that was how my so called home looked like: licks over here and there, old notebooks on the floor, a high school  uniform insisting to dry in the middle of the half-living room half-bedroom, and, of course, an angel drinking tea on the coach making fun of me.

She seems to be a little bit angry, as if I was doubting about her words. In fact...I am; but avoiding my “unnecessary words” she stands up, goes towards my futon, gets in and says:

-Aren’t you going to sleep tonight? We have to go to school tomorrow. It’s cold so come here. 

     Again she breaks up my shield. I don’t know why but just do as she says and giving her my back I quietly close my eyes and try to sleep. Then, I noticed some movement. She’s moving towards my back and hugs me. Softly pronounces those words that I will never forget:

-Don’t forget about our meeting tomorrow. I need you but if you want me to leave you alone...just say it tomorrow. For now, let me stay in this warmth.

Such a begging voice that I could not refuse. We slept like a baby with its teddy bear, the first time in so long that I slept for real. 

The sunshine drains through the minuscule window of my warehouse, my eyes hurt as the light makes me blink again and again. On my almost awake state, I noticed that sweet but still caressing fragrance nurturing the room which makes me remember the jolt of the other day. I stand up. There’s no clue about my angel only her scent - wait a minute- “My angel?” What the hell am I saying?...

Another day just like the hundreds of days I’ve been living so far: a regular student but an exceptional athlete, hated by almost everybody, admired by some weird yet cute minority. But not loved.  As the classes finished and the sports practice started my mind was into those deep blue eyes. Though, my reflexes were as accurate as always. Everything went fine. The coach and teammates congratulated me. I just answered with a fake smile.

The hours finally passed and it was time for our encounter.

This time I would memorize by heart how to get to our spot. As I step in, I can notice every tree, branch and stones I hurt myself on that snowy afternoon... My big and elegant entrance was made with the silly phrase: -So, what business do you have here?

Not a word.

Not a human being.

Nothing.

I knew it. This was a bad joke that some of my enemies would have planned to make fun of me. As if I hadn’t have enough misery in my life.

I just sat down, muttering heavy vocabulary against those who thought it was a funny idea.

However, the scent I had memorized since last night flooded the frozen cherry trees path.

She was there.

My puzzled me had turned my damnation into a feeling of relief. Phew! I was not daydreaming again. Immediately I realized she was true.

With an agitated voice she says: -I could make it! You’re here.

Every time she opens those beautiful pink lips I can’t understand.

Does her words implied “I’m  happy you are here” or “It was so hard to get here” or “ I’ve forgot about you, sorry.” or “I thought you wouldn’t trust in me...poor little thing.”    

None of my thoughts were true. The only who knew it:  her.

My slow mind motion was interrupted by that body warmth I’ve been longing for all this time,

again, her skin, her hair, her eyes, her touch. But this time I needed to know her name. So I step a little back from our hug and asked, as my prince- manner like could do: 

-Please, say your name.

She just saw my begging face with such a kindness, a kindness meant for a mother with her children. She replied:

 -My name is the name you have given me.

I don’t know yours. How am I supposed to answer to you, stranger?

I can’t breathe, my heart feels like a thousand needles passing through it. I kneel down. Suffering without a word to say and unable to move. I collapse.

A cold wind freezes my motionless body. My face doesn’t show any emotion. Those words digging a tomb for me. I can’t stand it. This person, who was able to make me smile again, was also able to kill my soul... I stood there in my graveyard, longing it was a nightmare... Wishing nothing had happened. Wishing a soccer ball had crashed on my head.  I promised myself I wouldn’t open my eyes. I want to end the story lying on the ground, as if I was a hero hurt in battle...

In spite of my resolutions, thunderbolt and lightning travels from my neck through the last of my toes, a timid yet vivid kiss in my frozen neck, a touch that floods my humanity with a blow of life. She had my head trapped in her arms, a ticklish feeling of her hair in my forehead. By then, I had realized I didn’t care the pain as long as I could feel that replenish sensation of being important for someone else.         

Eternity... If I were to die, I wish I did here, down the frozen cherry trees...

…after a while of being in heaven.

Gabrielle, can we go home?

NO, we are home. 


A/N: This a story that reflects how sometimes we need a piece of sunlight to melt the ice in our lives. It´s just I can´t stop writing like this... Sorry.

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