Walk Through Life

• Niyumi Perera, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2018

The stars above illuminated the dying man’s face. Miyoko’s eyes were covered with a layer of waves. “Sofu, don’t leave me.” Miyoko pleaded. Miyoko’s grandfather looked the the young boy sadly. “Miyoko, the leaves on a tree can only begin their journey after the old ones leave. Now you can begin yours.”
“But I don’t want to start my journey. Not without you”
The old man said nothing, instead he took the family emblem out of his pocket. With a shaking hand he pressed his hand into Miyoko’s. Anasi’s last words sounded like a ship crashin onto jagged rocks. “I love you Miyoko. I always will.” Miyoko too shocked to move, ung onto his grandfather while Anasi’s last breaths of life faded away. A moment passed when nothing moved, Miyoko looked into his grandfathers eyes. The twinkle that had always been there was gone. Miyoko sank down onto his knees. The cool sensation of the grass ticking ever so slightly. “I will make you proud Sofu, I will” he said with a note of certainty. Only then did he start to cry.

Ten years later

Miyoko was now twenty-two and finishing his last year of university. The day before graduation, he thought about his life. His dad was still with him, but his mum had run away with another guy shortly after Sofu died. Together Miyoko and his dad had formed a strong relationship. So many miraculous and also unfortunate things had happened since Sofu died. These moments shaped Miyoko’s, made him who he was right now. But even through all that, his dad was the always the second person he would go to for help. He knew that Sofu would always be there with him in his heart.

As day turned into night, Miyoko lay in his futon, unable to sleep. He stared at the ceiling, stared at the glow-in-the-dark stickers from when he was younger. From when Sofu was still alive. Soon he was thinking about the last thing he said to his grandfather. ‘I will make you proud Sofu, I will.’ Just then as he he was back there in that precious moment, he could hear Anasi. ‘The leaves on a tree only begin their journey after the old ones leave.’ His mind drifted even further back to when he was just eight years old. Back to when the sand used to somehow crawl into his pockets while the white foam on the ocean lightly stroked his toes. Back to when Sofu would often tell him that ‘growing up takes independence but sometimes people need a shoulder to lean, and that his shoulder would always be their for Miyoko’

It was Sofu’s advice to Miyoko that pushed him further and further, that urged him take on new challenges, that made him happy when he accomplished goals. It Anasi he thought of when he hurled his graduation hat into the sky. It was Anasi he thought of when he continued on with his life.