A Breath Away From Her.

• Susie Ahmedin, Grade 9, Lynwood Senior High School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

It was like he was in a dream. He climbed up the hill. He could feel his limbs weakening with each step, the energy leaving his body.
Every step was an enormous task and every breath, a great effort.
Silvery beads of sweat trickled down his brow...cooling his wrinkled skin.
As it trickled down, with it, trickled the last of his strength. He thought, "Was this the end."? All this climbing, for nothing.
That's when he saw it! The dark shade, jutting out of the ground. It's fingers speckled with green, curling out and gasping the sky within them. The ancient tree. It stood at the top of the hill like a silent observer, a watchful friend, a guardian. A guardian of his sacred memories.
He found himself moving again, renewed with energy. The last forty years of his life flashing in front of his eyes. Life kept unfolding. Old memories, bitter sweet happy and sad, all of them clear in his mind.
He moved close to the ancient tree, taking in the scent of everything around him. Each scent had its own value, it's own story to tell, memories of stories long gone of treasured memories.
Thrown into the darkened pits, he touched the bark of the tree, moving his hands gently over the solid yet rough surface as if it was an ancient priceless souvenir.
He closed his eyes and saw himself sitting in the shade of the tree, leaning against its trunk. Someone grabbed his hand. A girl, who was as beautiful as an angel radiating in the sunlight. Her head rested on his shoulder, while his other hand moved slowly across her black hair, darker than any black he had ever seen and yet so illuminating.
Unconsciously his hand went up trying to touch this magnificent creature from heaven. He could not reach her, or touch her...why?
His hand touched the bark of the tree, his fingers brushing against something carved in the tree. On his knees, he stared at the carving and remembered himself carving this out, sitting beside the angel all those years ago.
He began touching the carving repeatedly, his fingers trying to feel every memory. His name. His name and that of the angel!
He felt something on his cheek and brushed it but found his fingers wet. He let out one final sigh, a sigh filled with sadness, and happiness, like two sides of the same coin. He sat down with his back against the tree, like he sat with her all those years ago. He sucked in the air one last time, smiling. At last, it was over. At last he was one breath away from her.