Of Asphodel

• Lucas Tooley, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2014

The beautiful orange weeds seem to me like dancing flames as I slowly, sorrowfully walk through this endless field. As the flickering weeds jump they remind me of a girl, a girl that I used to know. Her flowing red hair and the glow that she radiated was just like the fiery weeds. Those memories of that girl race around in my mind now but I cannot even remember her name. I try to grab at the memories but they slip out of my grasp so easily. My mind is slowly and ever so painfully slipping away. The pain is not a hurtful pain that would make you twist up in agony, because I do not feel that sort of pain anymore. The only pain I feel is a tight feeling in my chest, butterflies in my stomach and the pure uncertainty of my final destination. Soon, I worry, I will never remember that girl at all, even when I watch the flaming weeds dance.
Dance. Such a short word and for many, that word means nothing to them. For them it’s just another word, but for me this specific word rings a small bell in my soon to be empty head. Another hazy memory races and I struggle to keep a hold of it. It’s as if the universe doesn’t want me to remember. But I look to the flaming weeds for guidance and they flicker at me and my memory becomes clearer. There’s that girl again that I used to know, beside me in the night, on a hill with the stars above us. The stars, such beauty and such perfection just like the girl, my everlasting light. Now the memory is getting more vivid and strong. The girl beckons me to dance with her under the stars and so we dance. We dance under those stars and I couldn’t help but think, why isn’t the girl up there with them. She belonged up there, in the twinkling heavens. She should have been a star, so all could see her beauty.
Suddenly I’m snapped out of my memory and I realise that I’m falling. I hit the ground hard but I do not feel the pain. There for what seems like forever, I just lay amongst the weeds that surround me. No others stop to help me. No one even gives me so much as a second glance. I just want to lie there forever, but a dark hand comes out of nowhere and pulls me up to my feet and I just simply continue with my wandering.
I don’t even know where I’m going or where I’ll end up. But I know now the burning weeds will guide me, like they guided me through my memories. So with every draining step I must struggle to hold on to my memories of that girl and trust the weeds to help me through my journey.