The Leaf Known for Love
BAM! It was all over! Oh, never again would our eyes meet in the fiery glow of the scarlet sunset. His hand meeting mine in the tender darkness that surrounded us. I called it the end, but some would say it was just the beginning, the beginning of love. My pink cloudy eyes swelling with hot tears streaming down my face at the thought of reality. It seemed like it had not truly happened. Ah but it did, and if he were here he could help me explain. But, alas, I do notknow if I will ever see him again-Kristian Richings. Never had I heard a name that made my heart beat more rapidly.Some say memories fade, but I know that once a memory has been made, it will stay with that person forever, no matter what.
July 14, 2004, was the changing point in my life. My grandma, mother, aunt, and I had been in England for almost two weeks at this point, and all of us had decided to go to the Roman Baths. So my aunt remembered her friend Julie and invited her to come along with us. She thought it was a wonderfulidea, and she brought her sister as well. The moment I met Jan Richings, was a moment I will never forget. She was beautiful. When all of uswere done looking in the baths Jan and I went to the gift shop to see what they were selling. While in the shop, I walked around a great deal and looked at everything. I was not paying much attention to what Jan was doing, until her cell phone rang. I was going to ask her who had called but I thought it would be rude, so I did not. As she was paying for the items she had chosen, her phone rang again. This time she had a distressed voice.
"Baby, don't worry, just get another blanket and try to rest." I becameinterested in what was going on so I decided it was time to take action.
"Jan who was that?
"Well, I have a son around your age and he is at home sick."
"Really? Is he going to be okay?"
"Oh yes, he will be fine." I believed her and we walked out to meet the others. But our day was not over. After we went to the Roman Baths, we went to the Wax Museum. After we had finished the tour, we all walked outside to talk. So I brought up the fact that I had learned.
"Mommy did you know that Jan had a son?"
"No, I didn't"
"Well she does and she says that he is sick." My mother turned to Jan.
" Why is he ill?"
"Well there are these bullies at his school and they have been torturing him for a long time now"
"Oh my, what have they done?"
"They ran him into a brick wall, they broke his arm, they poured acid on him, and they have stabbed him with a protractor." After she had spoken about this, my motherlooked to me. That was whenI did the one thing that I will never regret.
"Mom, I am going to help him!" My mother looked deep into my eyes as if trying to read my thoughts. Then, as if by fate, she understood! And she told Jan to lead the way. When we were finally inthe car I found that we were three hours away from where Jan lived. The one ride that I will never be sorry that I took. About halfway through our journey, Jan called her son and told him that she had someone special coming to see him. He wanted to know who I was but she just said to be patient and he would see soon enough. What seemed to be forever finally ended. We pulled into her driveway. At this time I realized that I had been holding my breath and I let it out! I could keep my hands steady! My heart was racing like I had just run fifteenmiles. I did not know what I was going to say or how he was going to react to me. I did not like being the way I was, and until this point in time,I did notthink of how he would see me. But right as we were parking, sirens were going off in my head as if there was an ambulance right behind me. I was petrified!
As I stepped outof the car, Kristian Richings came from the house. My heart stopped and it seemed as though he was the only one in the world. His long strides took him to his motherHe did notsmile and I thought he did not like me already, I was about to jump back into the car and say, "Okay, well that was fun. Let's go and never come back!" but I stood where I was and that was when he saw me. Our eyes meet and I could not look away. I did notwant to look away. I had seen an angel. I had to smile. My lungs let out a rush of air and would not let me take another breath. My heart fluttered then jumped into my throat as he smiled back. But he was not smiling because I smiled; he smiled because he could not help himself. He was the one to break the silence. His voice trailed through my mind over and over
"Hi." This simple "hi" killed me on the inside and I then knew there was a God. How else would I have met such a miracle?
"Hi," I answered, not that I did to respond but, because I could not say anything else. After we stood there for a while, we seemed to forget that our parents were there with us. It was like we were the only two people on the earth. Finally, Jan spoke,
"Why don't you take Jordan up to your room and play some games?"
"Okay" so we went upstairs. When we walked upstairs, I put my bag on his door so that I would not forget it when we left. And fate was with me that day. We walked into his room and he had the one video game that I loved! I asked him if we could play it and he said that would be perfect.
"I bet I could beat you" he said with a huge smile beaming at me. I had to match the smile as I told him,
"Yeah, believe what you want, but it's what I know that counts, and I KNOW I will win." We laughed at what we had said and the games began. After I had won my five games, we decided we should stopwhile I was ahead.
"Oh, you are just upset that I won" I mocked.
"Yes, yes I am," he said ginning happily. So we went outside and we jumped the fence that separated his house from the school. We walked to a spot that was out of the sun's diligent reach and sat down. For a while, we spoke ofanything that came to our minds. Then I asked a question that I knew would come sooner or later.
"What do you think of me Kristian?" I could tell that he was very shy and he looked down at his sneaker.
"Okay, here let's sit back to back, then I cannot see you and you can not see me. Don't be embarrassed" we moved so that our backs supported each other. I could feel each breath he took, and I matched him. I asked him the question again. This time he answered with all that he had in him.
"Jordan, I think you are the most amazing girl that I have ever met, if I never meet another person, I would be happy!" At this remark, I had to clench my heart. This comment hit me harder than a baseball bat. I was speechless, I had just met this guy an hour ago and I had already left an imprint on his heart! Then my mouth came into play.
"Thanks." I said. I could notbelieve I had just said thanks. I felt stupid, almost as stupid as I sounded.
"No, I am sorry that is not what I meant to say." I could barley speak knowing the look that was probably on his face. He probably thought I was retarded! But I deserved that!
"I wish I could explain how I feel to you" I gulped "I will, just don't laugh!"
"I won't" he promised
"Pinky swear?"
"Yes", he said as he turned around to take my pinky in his. I am happy he turned back around before I blushed. I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks. I knew I was red, I could feel the pulse of warmth in my face as I spoke.
"I think you are amazing! I have had the best hour of my life and I know I would not trade it for anything. If I never got to meet anyone else, I would DIE happy." At the end of my speech, I could feel him rise from the ground. I turned around, afraid that I had somehow insulted him, to find him standing with his hand out to help me up. I took his hand and when I was fully standing, he put his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him in a first hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and tightened my grip. The sun exploded! The earth fell out form under me and it was just me and Kristian holding on for dear life. There was no one else in the world! I felt the heat from his body and I welcomed it. We held on to each other for a while longer until we heard the parents yell to us from the car.
"Come on. Let's go." We had no idea where we were all going, but all I knew was that I was happy I was going with Kristian.
We went to a Pub for dinner. Kristian and I did not care about eating; all we wanted to do was talk. So when our food was brought we were the first done and we excused ourselves form the table and walked outside. We returned to our back-to-back position and spoke aboutourselves. We talked for hours about nothing and everything all at once. When dark came, it surrounded us until we could not see, so we moved to this bush that moved us out of the lights coming form the Pub door. That was when Kristian took advantage of this dark and scary moment. He decided to tell me a ghost story. Of course, he would tell me the scariest one he could think of. The story lasted about five minutes with all the description and by the end he could not resist to jump at me screaming. I almost died of fright.
"Kristian!" I yelled, "Why did you do that?" I said while trying to quiet myself with my hand. But I knew why he did it. I smiled and hit him playfully in the arm.
"Jerk," I said laughing.
"Ah, but I made you smile" he joked. He was so cute in everything he did, and I could nothelp but smile. We laughed for a while and talked some more until our parents came out. Then I realized what would happen. I wrapped my arms around Kristian and he knew something was wrong.
"Kristian," I said in a small voice so that only he could hear.
"Yes?"
"Kristian, don't let me go" for a moment he seemed to hesitate not understanding what I meant, but then he knew. He whispered in my ear about the plan that we had set, and I knew what he was going to do. My motherwalked over to me.
"It" s time to go, Sis" she said. I did notwant to leave and it was time to put the plan into motion.
"Uh, Mom"
"Yes"
"I forgot my bag at Kristian's house." Jan walked over to my motherand I knew that Kristian had already shared the news with her. I smiled to myself and looked over at Kristian, but he was not looking at me. He was studying his shoes again, and I knew that he was worried that our plan was not going to work. It was three hours to get back to our timeshare and I knew that if I went with my mother, she would not take me to get the bag, so this was our last hope. Sure enough, Jan told my motherthat it was alrightwith her if I stayed the night. My mothersaid that she did notmind either! I walked out of ear range, taking Kristian with me, and I told him the good news. He laughed and took my hand to his lips, then pulled me into another hug. I ran back to my motherand hugged her so hard that she said that she could not breath. I told her I loved her then climbed into Jan's car.
I could nottake my eyes off of Kristian, I wanted him to know how truly lucky I felt to share the moment with him. He turned to look at me and let out a breath that he had been holding and smiled. I smiled back, and turned to look out the window to wait until we got to his house. The glare in the window made it easy for me to see Kristian beside me. He looked toward me a few times and I saw him smile to himself, and I wished I could read his mind but I knew he was happy. When we pulled up the driveway for a second time, I closed my eyes and prayed that the night would last forever. We walked in the door and Jan showed me that I would be in the room next to Kristian's and if I got scared at all that night that I could wake him. That night I stayed up. I could notgo to sleep and I wanted to be awake for everything.
The next morning I was the first one up and I went downstairs so that I would notdisturb anyone. I sat down on the couch and closed my eyes. When I opened them Kristian was standing in front of me, and it startled me, but right before I screamed he put his hand over my moth and did the "be quiet" signal. He sat down beside me and I leaned against his body taking in his heat. I smiled and he put his arm around my body to stop the shivers going up my spine. He held me close and we stated what was going to happen that day.
"Don't worry about what is going to happen," he said, "worry about what is happening." I smiled and he made me feel better. Then he told me to rest. He knew that I had stayed up all night, because he had stayed up all night listening to me. I laughed to myself, then tried to sleep.
I woke up to the sound of the door closing. I stretched and I asked Jan where Kristian had gone. She said that he had gone to school for a few hours and that we would pick him up later. I said alright thenfell back to sleep. Jan woke me about three hours later and said that we were going to pick up Kristian. When we had gotten him from school, I was feeling sad on the ride back to his house, and he knew it, so he slipped his hand between the seat and the door so that I could hold it. He did everything perfectly and I was happy to be with him. The day went slow, which was great! Thenwe were scared! I did notwant to leave, and Kristian did notwant me to go either. Then my mothercalled! I went to Jan's outstretched arm that held on to the phone. I held the phone to my ear.
"Mommy…"
"You can stay another night" she blurted out. I squealed with delight and ran to embrace Kristian. He smiled when he heard the news and we went upstairs to talk. We had talked until it was dark and Jan walked in to tell us that it was time to get ready for bed. I leaped up from the couch and ran to get on my clothes. I smiled to myself as I put my toothpaste on my toothbrush and Kristian walked in. He bumped me as if he had not seen me.
"Oh, sorry miss, I didn't see you there" he said with a small smile on his face. I bumped him back a little harder making him drop water on his shirt.
"Oh sir, excuse me I tripped!" thenwe laughed as we tried to see who could brush their teeth the slowest. Finally, after five minuets, Jan told us that our teeth must be clean enough. So as I was leaving the room I tagged him.
"You're it!" I sang and dove for my bed. He ran into my room and jumped on the bed so that I had to hit him with a pillow to get off. After we had played a little more, Jan came in and said that it was finally time for us to get some sleep. As Kristian was walking out of the room he turned back to smile once more at me before heading to his room. Later that night, after everyone was surely asleep, Kristian walked in to my room, sat down on my bed, and smiled down at me. I looked up at him and smiled back brighter than his. He had to stifle a laugh when I made the face at him. Then he thought for a moment and walked out of the room. I had no idea what he was planning but then I heard.
"Mum, the washer is bothering me, can I close my door?" he whispered.
"Yes, and close Jordan's also" she yawned back at him. I smiled and hid my laughter in my pillow. When he walked back into the room I smiled and called him a liar.
"Whatever do you mean young girl?" he snickered. I put a hand over my mouth and closed my eyes. Then Kristian walked over to my bed and took my hand. He pulled me to my feet and walked me to his room. I sat down on the couch and he sat down next to me. It was dark so he cracked a glow-stick for us to see. I smiled at the fact that he was so prepared for the occasion. I put his arm around me and I leaned my head on-his shoulder. We sat for a long time, just listening to the darkness. He looked into my eyes and winked. I smiled up at him and a tea slid down my cheek. The smile on his face vanished.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Kristian, you know this won't last forever" I said, "don't you care?" Another tear slid down my warming cheek. He wiped it away, and lifted my lips to his. The stars fell from the sky that night and we were twirling in darkness. I knew that he cared and I would never question that thought again. We laughed and discussedhow we felt. My first kiss is always something to remember. After he kissed me, I stood up to look out the window. The bright burgundy clouds hovered over the rooftops, just grazing the tips of the trees. It was Magnificent! I stood in mesmerized by what I saw. Kristian came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist and held me there for a while. I was still staring out the window when he whispered it to me. The words that will always ring in my head, and I know they were said out of honesty.
"You're beautiful" he whispered as if it were just us in this universe. I turned around to face him with tears streaming down my cheeks. He knew that I was happy and he held me tighter so that I knew I was safe and loved. We sat back down and I fell asleep until around six o'clock. Then Kristian woke me up and took me back to my bedroom. He sat with me until I fell asleep thenwent to bed.
The next day was our last day together. My mother, grandma, and aunt came over and we all went out to eat. We were all gloomy but Kristian still made me smile. We sat down by a stream and spoke one last time. Then we got into our separate cars and went our different ways. That was the last time I saw Kristian. On the plane home, my mothertold me that Jan had spoke with her. Jan told my mother that she had not seen her son smile and laugh for over three years. A few hours later, as I was looking through my journal, I found a leaf that Kristian had put inside of it without my noticing. With just this little gesture I saw so much love and I knew he cared very deeply for me. I smiled at the thought that such a beautiful person now knows that I love him and always will.
Looking back now, I realize that I have learned a so much from this family. From Jan I learned to show selfless love and to give care to anyone in need of it. From Kristian I learned that you can care about and love someone very deeply even if you know they are going to leave you. And from my mother I learned to give up little things for others, means a great deal. From this experience I have learned that I cannot judge people until I come to know more about them. Also, I have learned that you have to know a persons' background before you can truly understand where they have been and what hardships they have had to overcome. Love is a two-way thing, but that does not mean you cannot love someone who does not love you back. Some say memories fade, but I know that once a memory has been made, it will stay with that person forever, no matter what!