View Media

Make a Wish

Vist Rach's Profile

Make a Wish

Her hair was full of fire that day, but the wind was blowing it out. She was running, the field rolling out from under her bare feet for miles, in front of her, and to her left and right until it touched the red horizon. She weaved her path fiercely in and out of the long grass, and as she passed, it seemed to shy away, push back and out, away from her warm body. This was the path I followed. I was running too. Of course, I never could keep up with her, but for all the world I wouldn’t stop trying. She looked back, her feet pounding the ground, a smile pouring out from behind her auburn hair which fell about her shoulders and bounced with every step.
  “I give up!” She laughed. She stopped, breathing hard, and turned around to face me. For a moment, the wind took her hair and forced it off her face, into a wild halo that throbbed around her. She stretched her arms out to the sky, and she had never looked more alive, and I with her.

That summer we had run through fields and fields of sunshine, rolled through the days as if they would never end and played together under the balmy sky. And at night we had had sunshine too, for she held such light it seemed as though we never slept. For weeks, we had fallen into each others arms with such passion, and ran and ran, if only into darkness.

Her hair dropped back into place, and she fell backwards to find her place amongst the grass, an impossibly small star in the enormous windy field, in the fading light. As I reached her, sat next to her, I saw something pass behind her smile. In a face so strong there appeared some weakness she had never shown me before.

“I give up.” She was still out of breath. “I can’t keep running from you like I’ve been doing for days now.” She sat up now and dropped her head, and with it her smile.

“What?” I laughed. “We always run, it’s fun, we’re young -”

“No, David,” She looked up and her eyes held pity. “No, I can’t… Keep running… You know?”

I knew. “Well, lets not, then.” I stood up and backed away a few steps, helplessly searching the field empty of all but us. “Let’s stop running, lets… Lets do something!”

“David -”

“Anything, OK? Anything, just make a wish and we’ll do it.”

She stood up too now, but she still looked at me like that, with that look that brought something like shame to my face and inside, fear that dropped through me like a weight.

“David, that’s not what I mean.”

“Look.” I grabbed her, my hands on her arms. I had her then, for a second, but how can you hold something with such heat for so long without burning your hands?

“Please,” I looked at her despairingly, “just make a wish.”

“OK” She whispered, and broke out of my grasp.

She stepped back. “I wish that I had never met you.”

Her words rushed around me into the air and shouted and laughed and clawed at my skin. I realised that I was in the never-ending field too, that before belonged only to her. And oh, how empty now it was that it was mine. It stretched into eternity.

Comments:

1 Laura | on 17 June 2009

Brilliant. The beginning and end are really well written smile

2 Howard | on 17 June 2009

you are a very talented writer, who should really write novels. i’m thinking chick-lit, maybe dark stuff, you’re a natural.

Leave a Comment:

You must be a member to leave a comment. Login or Sign Up