Paradise And Heaven

• Hamideh Gharekhanian, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2013

Who knew a church hall-way could change your life for the better or worse. I remember the day I saw his bright brown dyed hair with his German blue eyes staring into the bible that told a million stories with one glimpse of the eye. He could capture any girl’s heart. He wasn’t super intelligent nor was he dumb. But one thing he did was never give up faith without a smile. His smile brightened up the whole entire room like the heavens shining over us. His smile was the light and torch to my day without his light I will be trapped in a dark lonely box.
It was the senior year in high school. My best friend and I were going to see if the boy he likes will give her his number. That was the day I met him. Smiling unreasonably at the back in a small corner. Looking back, all I could do was smile and blush. He then stopped smiling. His German light blue eyes. My best friend Luke asked her for her number. She rejected him and he was hurt and embarrassed. He quickly ran out of the class with tears falling down his eyes. On my way home, I realised that I left my iPhone at school. I called my phone hoping someone would answer the call. To my surprise, a girl answered my phone. Her voice was like that German blue eyed girl. I could even smell her perfume from a long distance. She then told me to meet her at 5am. I was happy when I got there, I opened up the door. I saw the girl with the brown dyed hair. The smell of her perfume covered up the atmosphere. She stood up from her little corner and took out my phone from her backpack. She pushed me gently into the chalkboard and kissed me. It was my first kiss. On my phone contacts, I had a new speed dial number, “A’ Mariana” and a picture of the German blue eyed girl. After a few weeks I realised A Mariana hadn’t been coming to school. Weeks went by and months and she hadn’t been attending school.
The next day, I couldn’t wait any longer. So I went around the whole school asking where she could be, they told me she was at home so I went to her house. When I knocked on the door, a young teenage boy answered saying he was A Mariana’s older brother. He took me to see her. She was asleep, laying there with an innocent face sleeping like snow white. She looked really weak and in pain. She woke up and misled at me with a heavenly smile. I was starstuck by her natural beauty. All I could say to her was, “where have you been lately?” she didn’t reply back to me. She grabbed my hand and took me to a riverbank and said “this is where paradise and earth meet. Come here when you miss me.” I grinned. She kissed me as the sunset was setting. We started to date after that.
1 month later, A Mariana dropped out of school. She told me to stop ringing her. We were over. 2 days later she called me from a hospital, asking me questions about life. I told her she sounded weird. That’s when my whole entire world came crushing down. It was like an iceberg been slowly unfrozen flooding the world. She said she had an odd type of brain cancer that could not be cured, due to a late test. While she was on the phone, her voice became softer than ever. The minutes went by and she lay in hospital fading away like a tear being wiped away. She said she couldn’t breathe anymore. I dropped everything I was doing and started running down the busy street to get to her. He got a text but he ignored it. Rapidly running towards the hospital, I quickly ran to the receptionist. I asked them where she was. They told me she had passed away. I went to go and see her, she was lying there innocently with her soft baby skin harmed by her disease. I wanted to tell her that it was a mean, horrible joke. I opened up my phone and her beautiful picture showed up. It was a picture of her German blue eyes staring into mine with a description that said “when you miss me, go to the river where paradise touches the earth, I’ll be there smiling down at you.” I cried and cried.