Inspired by a True Story

There was a boy she hadn’t heard from in a long time. Seven months, to be exact. And in their world, that was a long time.

There was a time, over a lifetime ago, when they not only saw each other every day; they also saw each other’s future in the other’s eyes. Maybe they were too young to think about “the future” back then, but they did, and now the future they were thinking of was here—only they weren’t part of each other’s “nows.”

They didn’t talk much back then. They joked, they laughed, they cared, but they didn’t talk in the intimate way the girl wanted them to talk. And when she sought words from someone else, he wondered why she’d wander.

Then a strange thing happened. In the world of grown-ups, they broke up. But in their world, the world of childlike caring and innocent knowing, they grew closer. He started speaking to her in her dreams. Over the Web. Over the phone. In ways he had never spoken to her before. She would dream, and she would see what he wanted to let her see. He would speak, and he would say what she hoped he had said way back when. She would reach out, and he would open up. The farther they traveled from the world they once shared, the closer they came to knowing each other. Once again.

Until the day she fell in love. If it hurt him, he didn’t say, but he said that he was happy for her. And he meant it. And she knew. And they both understood that it was time for them to fly off to places they’ve never been to before. And so they flew, thankful for the clarity of their vision and the strength of their wings. It wouldn’t have been possible without the other they had just left behind.

Sometimes, though, in the course of their flight, a ripple is felt from within. A tiny tug at the heart, a little spark of intuitive knowing, a faint signal that is being sent from the other end of the Universe.

Are you okay?

I am fine. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.

All right, then. I’m just here.

I know.

And then they’d be on their way again, knowing that all was well.

Except this time, all was not well. There was something amiss, and nobody could say what it was. He disappeared, and she tried to forget. And she did forget—for a while, at least. Until the tears started flowing for reasons she could not understand. There were tears through the laughter, tears in the middle of the night, tears amidst the glow of the sun’s rays. There were so many tears, and she did not know where they were coming from.

One night, he appeared to her in a dream. She could not remember the dream upon waking, but she would never forget his face in it. The next night, he was in her dream again, and this time she knew that he felt the tears she was shedding.

The next morning, it was there: “____ sent you a message on ____”

“I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch… How are you? …I just wanted to say hi.”

And she smiled, knowing all will be well.