Paper Planes

Paper Planes

There are things in life that make us happy. There are things in life that make us sad. Unexplainable things that make us laugh for hours. Or cry for days. Places and people who mean the world to us one day, mean nothing the next. And once strangers are now your closest friends. Life’s weird like that. Nothing is constant, yet everything lasts forever.

When we met I was nothing but a meaningless character. There was nothing special about me. No defining characteristics that would attract anyone’s attention however, I did. Her name was Remi.

As Remi and I got to know each other I quickly realized that everything about her was fascinating. From the beautiful way her light brown hair fell down on her face, to the scar under her eye, everything about her was gorgeous. Remi was a kindergarten teacher from a small town in Georgia. After being left at the altar a few years ago, she turned to the only place she ever truly felt safe; the consignment book store on 10th street.

When I met her it was like meeting the queen. Remi strolled through the endless aisles filled with old books looking for new owners. There was something about her that immediately made me want to know more. To this day I am not sure if it was the way her head was held so high despite being clearly upset, or the smile on her face as she looked at each book. After being in the store for only a few minutes, she stumbled across me. I was in the back of the store, trying not to draw too much attention to myself. People never liked me. Remi however wasn’t like the other people I had met. She seemed to fallcheck in love with me as fast as lightning strikes, which is good, because I was head over heels before she made it to the end of the nonfiction section.

The first time Remi and I went out, she took me to her parent’s house for Easter. She showed me around her family’s ranch style house as we waited for her father to get home with the rest of the groceries. Remi told me about her favorite things to do and all about her dream of someday becoming a writer. The evening went on without a hiccup, until it came time to cook the sweet potato casserole. Unlike her mother, Remi was not an all-star chef. She was a messy mixture of distress as she worked at layering the marshmallows and sweet potatoes into the pan. The scarlet red I wore that night had been stained in white marshmallow by the end, but I was happy. Remi cleaned me up the best she could and took me home with her.

Years have passed since Remi and I first met. We had a good routine of going to school each day and relaxing on the porch each night. Everything was going great, until he showed up. His name was Louis and if you ask me he was the closest thing to the devil I had ever seen.

Louis was new to the town and had moved in near Remi and I a few months prior. One night while we were sitting on the porch outside Remi’s house, Prince Charming waltzed his way on over and asked for a cup of sugar. Sugar? Really? Let’s be honest no one actually does that anymore, that’s just a lame excuse to talk to your cute new neighbor. Regardless of what I thought, Remi invited Louis inside and forgot all about me. Not only did I have to sleep outside that night, but I was soaked from the rain.

Soon after Louis’ arrival, Remi began to forget about me all the time. I had to miss seeing the student’s show and tell because Remi was too busy getting to work early so she could grab coffee with stupid Louis and didn’t bother bringing me. I felt like those toys I saw in that movie Remi used to watch all the time. The one where they all have some guy’s name scribbled on the bottom of their shoes? Not really sure what the plot line was, all I knew was that they were sad toys because the guy wouldn’t pay attention to them. That’s me right now. Louis is screwing up my perfect world and I can’t stand it.

On my favorite chair I sat, watching the morning transform into the late evening, as I waited for Remi to get home. Her and Louis went out for a late lunch after school and should have been back any minute. When I finally heard the sound of her beat up pick-up truck pulling into the driveway, I noticed she had a stack of cardboard boxes in the back. As the door opened, Remi and Louis carried in all of the boxes and seemed to be in the middle of an important conversation. From the living room, I could hear bits and pieces of the conversation between the sounds of packing.

Remi had decided to move to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a writer for children’s books. The news of her big move was the greatest thing I had ever heard. No more Georgia meant no more stupid Louis with his stupid sugar requests. Remi and I would be in a whole new place where we could start a new, perfect routine and sit on a new porch. Did they even have porches in New York? Maybe we’d have to start drinking our tea on the balcony. Nevertheless, this was a grand day.

After Louis left, Remi spent the rest of the night packing her belongings and getting ready for the long journey ahead. I overheard her tell her mom on the phone that she won’t be living alone and that her mom had nothing to worry about. Being the sturdy fellow I am, I knew I could keep her safe, but it was really nice to see that she thought that much of me. How could I have ever doubted Remi? Of course she still loves me just as much as always.

The next morning Remi and I were up early to finish packing. She made a huge breakfast of bacon and eggs, and turned her iPod on max volume as she danced around packing. Dozens of brown boxes are packed into the back of her truck. The trip to New York was almost 14 hours long, but Remi made it clear she didn’t want to fly.

Just as I got into the truck, I saw a for sale sign going up in Louis’ yard. That was a weird coincidence, that he would be moving right as we moved. It’d been almost a year since Louis first moved in down the street. He was an irritating businessman that really had no interest other than “starting a family and settling down.” What even is that? I mean, why spend all this time with Remi when the goal was to find someone to start a family with? Remi and I had a perfect family of two, and that’s how it was gonna stay. Regardless, Remi and Louis became close.

Louis’ silver Honda Accord pulled out of the driveway full of the same brown cardboard boxes that now filled Remi’s truck. Curious to see where he was heading, I watched Louis turn down the street and start driving our way, I never expected him to pull into Remi’s house. What was he doing here? Can’t he see that we are busy trying to leave?

“Are you almost ready to go?” His voice was about as deep and meaningful as a snail if you asked me, but Remi always talked about it to her friends. Apparently a voice can be sexy? More like irritating.

Remi shut the door to the truck and turned to face Louis, her hands were covered in scrapes from the boxes and her face was bright red. Through a sigh she answered, “Yep almost ready! I just have a few more things inside to load up.”

The trip was the longest thing I could have ever imagined, and I loved it. Remi paid more attention to me than she had in months. Without stupid Louis around there was no one to steal her away. We arrived in New York just after dawn. The city reminded me of a concrete jungle. People were all over the streets and the smell of street vendors filled the air.

When we finally reached Remi’s new house in Brooklyn, I waited as she brought in each of the boxes. In the time it took her to take all the boxes up the stairs, a car pulled up beside hers. It was a silver Honda just like the one Louis drove.

A blonde haired man got out of the Accord and had the same loser comb-over that Louis did. Without getting a good look at his face, he took a box out of the backseat of his car and started to walk up the same stairs Remi had gone up just moments before. The boxes were the same brown cardboard that Remi used, and the same ones I saw in the back of Louis’ car the other day. Could the mystery man have been Louis? There’s no way. Stupid Louis moved to some other place, he didn’t move to New York. This was Remi and I’s new home. Right? I’d straighten this all out when Remi came back downstairs to get me.

Hours had passed and there was still no sign of the woman I found myself so in love with. Morning had turned to afternoon, and I was still sitting in the car like a nobody. Remi would come back for me eventually. She wasn’t going to forget about me anymore, this was a new place and we were gonna make a new perfect routine.

As the evening approached, I noticed I could see the lights in the kitchen of Remi’s new home. There in the window was my best friend. While watching her do the dishes, I saw a man come up and stand behind her. He kissed her neck and she giggled turning around to look at him. Right as she was turning, I got a glimpse of the man’s face. It was Louis?! Crushed, I fell asleep under the gleam from the streetlight. If Louis was here that meant no happily ever after for me and Remi. She really didn’t love me anymore.

It was days before I finally went into Remi’s house for the first time. She had needed space for Louis to ride with her and moved me to the guest room. There I sat day in and day out for what felt like a millenium. Rarely did Remi or Louis enter the guest room, it was a small room just off the living room. Whenever she would come in to get something, I tried to stand out and hope she would notice me. Once or twice she looked at me but couldn’t be bothered to spend more than a second thinking about the hundreds of memories we have checkhad together.

After years of being in the stuffy guest room, Remi had finally decided that she needed me again. By then I had felt faded and useless from all the time spent alone. How dare she want me , after replacing me with that wanna be. As she searched the guest room for me, I tried my hardest to make sure she wouldn’t find me. Even though I wanted Remi’s attention again, I didn’t want to be heartbroken again. Two people could play that game.

That night I heard Remi cry for the first time. She was sitting on the couch with Louis drinking coffee when I awoke from my evening nap. Although I had been mad at Remi before, I didn’t like to hear her so upset.

Louis comforted Remi as he asked her,“Did you check everywhere in the guest room? Maybe behind the bookshelf?” The stone face of my once mortal enemy seemed unusually soft at the moment. Louis was genuinely concerned about Remi, and was doing everything he could to make her feel better. Maybe I had misjudged him. The man who once took away my perfect life was now doing everything to make Remi’s perfect. He loved her.

As Remi looked up, tears running down her face, I noticed her grab onto something in her hand and hold it tightly. She kissed Louis and told him that she needed me. I did that to Remi. I was the one who took away her perfect life, not Louis. In one graceful move I tried my best to make her notice me. Here I was, where I always am.

Louis continued to try and get details out of her about when she last saw me, and where I might have gone, but he could tell Remi was broken hearted. That’s when he grabbed the ring she held so tightly out of her hands and put it on her finger. A beautiful, silver wedding ring. Gently, Remi’s faith was restored in the man she had grown to love so much.

“It’s…,” she struggled to get the words out through her tears, “It’s a small, red book. The pages are faded and there are water stains on the front cover. Louis that book means everything to me.”

Her face was somber as she continued to tell her fiance of the many adventures I had had with her. While I was so busy fretting over her not caring, I failed to see that she hadn’t forgotten about me at all. Pushed out from the shelf as far as I could, I wiggled back and forth to make her notice me. Remi was everything. My best friend, my favorite person on earth, and above all; Remi was the sweetest person I had ever met.

Louis made his way toward the guest room. In a frantic effort, the stupid boy turned into a brilliant man as he started searching the bookshelf where Remi had left me months before. There I stood, stretched out among the thousands of textbooks on the shelf.

Grabbing onto my silver binding gently, Louis exclaimed, “well there you are.” His face lit up as he brought me to Remi.

The thrill in her voice came back as she flipped through my pages and showed Louis notes she had scribbled in my margins over the years. There we spent the rest of the night reliving old memories of coffee shops and going to school. Louis told Remi stories about his favorite trips to the 10th street consignment bookshop. And for the first time in forever, I felt like I had my perfect family again.

Little did I know, Remi wanted me to be the guest book at her wedding. I was filled with the notes and signatures of hundreds of people. All of which loved my Remi as much as I did. Since then, I have made a new home in the living room. Louis made me my very own shadow box to sit in, and it gave me a wonderful view of the whole house.

A little book on paper planes

nothing too exciting

sat on the chair

of the old bookstore

Waiting for a family.