Kissed By A Memory

• Dannielle Dobson, Grade 8, Taree Christian College
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

I was running across the sunny meadows, feeling peaceful and tranquil. The sun's gentle rays were bouncing from my fair skin. I breathed in the crisp air that flowed around me. Lost in my peaceful oblivion, I saw a beautiful flower. It was nothing I'd ever seen before. Rich and luscious, its petals were the colour of blood, like a rose. I felt the sudden urge to take the flower and hide it from the rest of the world, a precious view kept only for me.
The inbuilt butterflies beating their soft wings in my stomach warned me not to touch it, and my fingers prickled in objection, but the flower had to be mine. The sky slowly became thick with rolling, rumbling clouds overhead as my lust grew. Cautiously, I reached for the exotic flower and felt the delicate, silky texture of the flower's bloom, before reaching down the stem and ripping it in two, so that I could take the flower as my own.
Suddenly, the once mesmerising, blood-red leaves had become black, and all serenity of the moment was lost; hail began to fall and the world lost all its colour. I screamed in pure terror, but the dark, billowing world began closing around me, drowning me in emptiness. The wind was howling, whipping my hair in all directions. I tried to brush it out of my face. There was nowhere to run. There was nowhere to hide. Yet, inside was a small voice saying, 'you can push on' and 'there is hope'. It filled me with warmth.
I closed my eyes and tried to remember any happy memories to block out the sound around me. I remembered him, putting his arms around me and pulling me close. I remembered him, feeding my hopes and dreams. I remembered him. And I fell to the ground, unable to take anymore.
Just like that, the meadow was a meadow once more. All the horror and heartbreak was lost and forgotten, as if it were never there. But I still remember. I will always remember. For that memory was both a gift and a curse, nothing I'd ever seen before. I had been kissed by the blood-red petals of a memory.