She could feel water drop onto her face, and she opened her eyes to see where it came from. It came from the tree she was laying under. It was old and the leaves quivered in the late summer air, as if anticipating autumn. She sat up wearily and looked around, then closed her eyes and leaned against the trunk. What was she doing here? She was Rebecca Moore. Straight A student, about to go into Harvard. And yet, as the idea had enticed her before, it left her empty.
"How could he have left me? Just die! Just like that!" She asked the tree, tears welling up in her already red and puffy eyes. The tree didn't answer, but it seemed to be listening. And that was all she wanted. Someone to listen.
"You wouldn't know, would you? I'll tell you what happened then, and maybe you can relate. You must've had several friends cut down in your past." Rebecca turned to face the tree, getting comfortable. Her father would be looking for her, but she didn't care. No one would find her here.
"Last time I saw him, we were walking through the park. I had his hand in mine, and I couldn't stop admiring his brown hair. It looked so gorgeous in the wind, however hard it was blowing. His hair never seemed messy, but it always was. And did I mention his beautiful green eyes? So much better than my ugly brown ones. I don't even remember what he was telling me. We got to my house, and he leaned down to kiss me. It was a quick kiss, a 'see you later' kiss. But, technically, it was a good bye one. I should've chased after him and made him give me a proper one. But how was I to know?"
Rebecca sighed, caught up in the moment. It had been a good kiss, none-the-less. Tony always gave her a good kiss. One that made her lips tingle, shivers run up her spine, and her stomach flop. But she knew a tree wouldn't know the feeling. She almost felt bad for it, so she leaned over and kissed the bark.
"I remember a long time ago, when we were twelve or so, my father caught me and Tony sitting in a tree, and he accused us of 'doing things kids shouldn't be doing'. Kissing, I assumed was what he meant. You couldn't really make love in a tree. But, anyway, we weren't. We had just been talking about how nice it would be if there was six feet of snow on the ground, and we could just jump off the branch into it. It did sound like fun. But we never did get to do anything like that."
A leaf dropped onto her knee. She picked it up and smoothed the curled ends of it gently. The sun was lower than she thought it had been. How long had she been sleeping? She rubbed one eye, then patted the bark.
"Tony once told me that time is the greatest thing in the world. Even God can't control it. I guess it is true, because if God could, wouldn't he have let Tony have more time with me? Just a little?" She paused to think this over to herself for a second. And then another memory came. The famous dance. She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. She didn't really have anything else to use at the moment.
"The music was loud, and it was hot. I was beginning to regret coming. I hadn't even wanted to. My friends had dragged me to it, because it was the first dance of the year and they told me I couldn't miss it. Really, I would much rather have been at home reading. But there I was, sitting on the bleachers, bored out of my mind and feeling a headache coming on. But, now that I look back, atleast that purple dress got to do something more exciting than collecting mothballs in my closest." Rebecca closed her eyes and smiled slightly. "Then, suddenly, he was standing over me. I think he was sweating, and his hair was a mess, and he smelled like he had bathed in cologne. But at the time he looked like the most handsome boy in the world." She sighed dreamily and tried to remember the look in his eyes.
It had been, of course, fear and eagerness, but she imagined it as calmness and confidence. It was so much more romantic in a hopelessly unromantic relationship. And yet they had loved each other to pieces.
"'Would you like to dance with me?'" She tried to sound like him, but failed horribly. "I couldn't even say anything. I just nodded dumbly, and he took my hand and pulled me onto the dance floor. At first we were stiff, and I felt terribly awkward. But then our favorite song came on, and it was suddenly as if we knew exactly what we were doing. We didn't, really. But that didn't matter. We moved close, and I was still nervous, but sang with the crowd anyway. He couldn't sing at all, and I couldn't, but it mixed with the hundreds of other voices. And then a slow song came on."
Rebecca took a breath and felt a tear slither down her face and drip off her nose. Why couldn't she go back to this time? Life was so unfair.
"He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I put my hands on his shoulders, and I felt like I was part of the music. Everything was just...gone. Except him and me, dancing. It sounds cheesy, but it was true. Well, I left not long after that. And the next day it was like nothing had happened. I felt completely lost." She could remember how she looked into his eyes, anticipating the love in them, but he had just looked at her like he always did. With the care of a friend, nothing more.
"I was heart broken. I spent that whole week just sort of gliding around, locked in my mind. And then on Friday he caught me in the hallway. He said something like 'We didn't finish the dance properly' and then he kissed me. Right in front of everyone! And that's when we got together." She paused for a second, reaching out for more happy memories. "He told...he told me once that he would never leave me." Rebecca stood up and brushed off her jeans. She had changed her mind.
The tree probably wouldn't want to know about that horrible night. The phone call, rushing to the hospital, sobbing besides the bed. Whispers of how tragic it was that the boy had to pay for his friend's stupidity; driving drunk.
It didn't matter any more. She couldn't keep him to herself. Tony had been such a wonderful person that God decided to make him an angel. Maybe he was watching over her now.
"I'm glad you listened to me." The girl told the tree, giving it another pat. She turned and started walking away, then something made her glance back. She thought she saw a figure of a boy, leaning against the tree. She knew she saw him. She didn't slow down though, or look back again. But she did walk home with a smile lighting up her tear stained face. Her tears had fallen onto an angel's wings, and perhaps that certain angel would hold them until Rebecca could meet him when her own time came.
