The Wishing Well
*Loosely based on the song Danny, Dakota and the Wishing Well by A Silent Film
In life, you'll wish for wonderful
In love, you'll wait
It has been said that each one of us has a soul mate and it could be in the romantic sense or the platonic sense. In whatever way people may want to think of soul mates, it is undeniable that there is someone out there that you will feel like you've known them for forever.
In the romantic sense of soul mates, people seem to be so eager to meet their soul mate that they'd try so hard to look for it. But, really, do people really have to try so hard? Some people meet their soul mate at a public transportation or at a fancy restaurant. Some people meet their soul mate at a very young age, while some meet theirs later in life. It's all about patience. It takes time to realize you've already met your soul mate. We don't realize sometimes is that when we're too busy looking at the other direction for our soul mate, they were just standing behind us waiting for us to turn around.
And for Karma Ashcroft, the things she did to find her soul mate seem to never agree with what's already written for her.
The rustle of the leaves disturbed the quiet surroundings of the secluded part of the park that hid a wishing well. A kid of age 5, dressed in a loose shirt, knee-length pants and black canvas shoes, leaning over the mouth of the well to look inside; her feet barely touches the ground. She loves seeing the coins glisten under at what she assumed an ankle-deep water during summer.
"Hello," a voice interrupted the kid's inner musing.
She turned around, placing her hands behind her back. Her feet taking small steps back.
"Don't go, please," begged the person. "You are the first person I met since we moved in the neighborhood three days ago, to be honest."
With her hands still behind her back, the girl looked down and kept quiet. The heel of her right feet digging a small hole on the sand beneath her.
"My name is Karma," said the person named 'Karma'. "What is your name?"
The girl shook her head and took off running.
"Wait!" Karma shouted after her.
The next day, Karma returned to the wishing well. She went early so she can meet the girl from the day before again. Karma sat beside the well, her back resting by the well's outer wall, a notebook opened at her lap and a pen in her right hand.
She waited, but there was no sign that the girl will come. Karma kept on doing this for days, always bringing the notebook with her. On the tenth day, Karma was unable to go by the wishing well. She was terribly sick, so she asked her mother if she could come by the wishing well to see if the girl she saw was there.
The girl didn't showed up.
The fourteenth day came, the girl never showed up. Again. Disappointed, Karma was losing hope on meeting the girl again, but her decision to know who the girl was is strong. If it should take another fourteen days for their paths to cross again, Karma will do just that. All she have to do is to be patient, besides, her mother taught her that patience can lead to good things.
So on the seventeenth day, notebook and pen in hand, Karma went to the wishing well again. The bottom of her sundress swaying with the wind. Her boots making a noise against the path that leads to the secluded area of the park.
Humming to herself, Karma didn't notice the girl looking at her. Doing the same position she did when Karma and her met, the girl moved toward her right where a wider path is present. Gulping, the girl waited for Karma to notice she's not alone.
Karma suddenly stopped humming when she noticed a pair of canvas shoes in front of her. Looking up, she smiled seeing the girl she saw seventeen days prior. The girl took a step but Karma was quick to stop her.
"Wait," Karma held her left arm out, blocking the girl's path. "Please don't go. I promise you I'm not a bad person."
The girl looked at Karma, contemplating whether to stay or run. Breathing out, she sat down with her back against the well. Karma smiled and did the same. They sat close to each other, as if they've known each other for many years.
"So what's your name?" Karma asked, the girl looked at the pen and notebook on Karma's lap. "Oh! Here." She handed the pen and notebook to the girl.
Opening the back of the notebook, the girl wrote her name. She handed the notebook back to Karma after a couple of seconds. Karma scanned the page to see what the girl wrote. In big, almost undecipherable handwriting, the letters A, M and Y is written on the page.
Amy.
"Your name is Amy?" The girl nodded. "Hello, Amy." Karma held her right hand out, Amy did the same but immediately pulled her hand back. Embarrassed at what she just did, Amy hugged her legs to her chest and lowered her head. Her mind firing up an onslaught of questions.
Karma laid a hand on Amy's shoulder, "It's all right, no need to feel bad about it."
Amy lifted her head from where she tried to hide it and looked at Karma. The other girl smiled at her, making her smile in return. It made Amy feel something unexplainable at that moment. She only just met this girl, never even uttered a word to her in a reply, but somehow Amy felt this Karma girl understood her more than the people who are around her every day.
Karma turned a page on her notebook and scribbled something. "So, uh," she started. "Do you go to school?"
Amy shook her head.
"Why?" The quiet girl shrugged. Karma frowned at her response. "That's unfortunate. I was hoping maybe we go to the same school together."
Again, Karma wrote something down before asking Amy another question. "Do you want me to teach you? Just on how to write and stuff?"
Smiling, Amy nodded. She's been trying to learn how to write properly on her own for months now and she's still unsuccessful. Her mother knew she's trying to learn, but she never helped her. She tried to ask her neighbor who is an elementary teacher but she backed out the minute she was standing in front of her neighbor's door. But having someone offering to teach her to write is enough happiness for her. It doesn't matter if she never learned how to count or solve mathematical and scientific equations, knowing how to write is enough for her.
Handing over the pen, Karma held Amy's writing hand and guided it below the word she previously wrote. Amy listened carefully to Karma, watched as the girl beside her guided her hand to write the same words Karma wrote minutes ago.
Friends
Amy looked at the word then at Karma. Friends. She and this girl just met, hasn't been talking for too long and, yet, they are friends already. Friends. A foreign word to Amy, but a concept she accepts.
It continued for months, Karma teaching Amy how to write. In fact, Amy surprised Karma when she brought a small dictionary with her to their weekly talk-write session. When Karma asked her why she brought a dictionary, she tried to explain why in littlest words possible, hiding the embarrassed smile on her face. Karma felt like crying. She never would have expected Amy to be this driven to learn, at least not in her presence.
The times that the two girls are at Karma's house, Amy mostly asks Karma's mom, Molly, for help. But for the first time in months, since Karma started teaching Amy, the other girl turned to her for help. It overwhelmed Karma.
Feeling the tears welling up on her eyes, Karma pulled Amy to her and hugged her. The tears fell from her eyes, but through her tears, she let out a laugh. The times she felt like she's useless, even though she's only five years old, Amy goes and proves her wrong.
Karma knew then that had she given up months ago on wanting to meet Amy, she'd miss out on having a great friend in her life. And she wished, as she hugged Amy tighter, that their friendship will last forever.
Their teen years came and Karma and Amy's friendship grew stronger. They arrange sleepovers every now and then. They get into disagreements with each other, like every teenagers do, but they make up afterwards. The longest they didn't talk to each other was 10 hours and Karma was the one to give in and barged in Amy's room saying, "I can't do this anymore. Not talking to you is killing me" to which replied with raising her eyebrows.
Realizing what she said, Karma groaned, "You know what I mean" and Amy smiled, walking towards Karma and hugging her.
"Let's not fight again," Karma said, content that she's finally hugging her best friend after 10 hours of not being near her.
It was Spring break when Karma and Amy got distant with each other. Karma went to every party she's invited to, meeting boys left and right. It frustrated Amy to no end every time Karma will tell stories about how she thought she has a connection with a boy she just met. They made Karma fall for them but they never catch her in the end and it saddened and angered Amy.
Watching Karma fall for a guy who finally caught her, Amy's quiet world gotten quieter. She talk-write less to Karma when they're together and Karma never understood what caused the sudden change in her friend.
High school graduation came, Karma decided she will move to Los Angeles hoping to break into the music industry. She and Amy spent two days together before Karma left. But on those two days, Amy was distant. She barely communicated with Karma. When the latter tries to talk to her, she would silence Karma and hug her. Karma never understood this action.
Karma never understood why Amy's acting strange since high school started but she never further questioned it. She brushed it off like what Amy's act towards her is just a normal teen thing.
Moving to L.A., the difficulty in breaking into the music industry is taking a toll on Karma. With no manager and talent agency to represent her, only relying on her talent, coupled with a failed relationship with some guy she met at a bakeshop she frequents to, Karma's hope of making it in L.A. seem dire and hopeless.
Amy, back in Austin, got a job that made her very busy. Karma have tried to contact her through various means, be it through e-mail, Facebook or Skype, but she never replied to any of Karma's messages. It wasn't that she's avoiding Karma, it was that she's afraid of what she may vaguely say in her replies. She's afraid that Karma may pick up something to what she would say and decide to never talk to her again.
And it was hard for her to ignore Karma's messages. Most of them, Amy can sense there's pleading lingering between the lines. And so, all of her would-be responses she wrote down. All she felt and though, she wrote it down – to the mundane up to the craziest, she wrote it all down.
She thought that it's better this way. At least, if Karma ever read Amy's responses while she's there, Amy will not have to second guess what Karma will feel. If Karma doesn't want to be friends with her anymore, it's fine. It will hurt but she's going to accept it. Because, in the end, Amy's grateful she met someone like Karma.
Once Karma landed back in Austin, her first destination is that one place in the world she knew she'd go back to whatever happens in her life. It's the only place that she felt at peace and can think clearly and not be worried by the world that surrounds her.
Pulling her trolley behind her, Karma walked the path that leads to the wishing well. It's quiet unlike the times she always go there, be it alone or with Amy. Today is different. It's like the world is giving her the peace she doesn't really need.
She wondered what Amy is doing right at that moment. She wondered a lot of things between her and Amy. She wondered about many things that her mind cannot make sense of.
Stepping the last step, a mop of blonde hair behind the well caught her eye. Karma took small steps, wishing the person is Amy.
"Amy?" she asked. The mop of blonde hair snapped up, visibly tensing. "Amy, is that you?"
Slowly, the blonde-haired person stood up and then stood frozen on the spot.
"I know it's you, Amy. We may haven't talked for years, but I still know that it's you."
Slowly, Amy turned around, unsure of what will happen next once she fully faced Karma. She didn't know how long since they've talked to each other. Has it been more than 3 years? 5 years? She don't know and she doubt Karma knows too.
Taking a step towards Karma, Amy placed her hands behind her back. It's an action she's always did when she's with Karma but never to any other person she comes in contact with.
Karma smiled a teary smile, "It's so good to see you again."
Amy returned her smile but the happiness she should feel didn't reach her eyes and Karma noticed it.
"How are you?" Amy raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'Really?'
"Wrong question, got it." Karma sighed, "Look, Amy, I'm sorry. I don't exactly know what I'm apologizing for but I really am sorry for all the things I've done and may do to hurt you."
The blonde bit her bottom lip, hesitant. Her hands suddenly feels heavy behind her back. Closing her eyes for a second, Amy outstretched her right arm, the notebook she's written her thoughts about Karma on her hand.
Curiously, Karma took the notebook. "What's this?"
Amy tapped her temple with her right index finger and then pointed it to Karma—'my thought about you'.
"Why are you giving this to me?"
The blonde sighed and opened the notebook at random and tapped the page, urging Karma to read. The auburn-haired girl did so.
September 10, 2013
Karma,
You wrote me a message on Facebook and once again, I ignored it. I've been doing that a lot lately, I know, and even though it's easy for me to do that, at the same time, it's hard because I want to talk to you time and time again.
But I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I might say something I'll regret. I'm afraid because we're thousands of miles apart and I wouldn't be able to see your reaction. I'm afraid because the words that I want to tell you may ruin our friendship and I don't want that to happen.
Yes, you taught me how to speak through writing, but you also taught me how to speak through actions. But you actions? Your actions still intrigues me, that's why what I want to tell you, I want to tell it to you once we're face-to-face.
You're the only constant in my life, aside from my family of course, and losing whatever I have with you scares me. Whatever happens, I wish that I can still call you my friend just like the moment we sat next to each other the second time we met.
-Amy
"Amy…" Karma said, lost for words.
Amy gave her a pained smile. Karma laid the notebook on her trolley and walked towards Amy, invading the blonde's personal space.
Karma interlocked her hands with Amy's. Looking at their hands joined together, Karma tries to remember the last time she held Amy's hand like the way she's holding it right now. There's something about holding Amy's hand that she never felt about holding other people's hands. Having the blonde's hand clasped with hers makes her want to always hold Amy's hand for the rest of her life.
With no word leaving her mouth, Karma placed Amy's hands on her hips and she placed her hands on the blonde's neck. She looked at the blonde and then, without warning, she pulled Amy down and crashed their lips together.
Shocked, Amy's hold on Karma's hips tightened, her eyes wide. Her heart beating wildly against her chest, a million thoughts racing through her head. This can't be happening. Karma's not kissing her. This is just a dream she'd wake up from any moment now. It's too good to be true.
Feeling the other girl's breath against her lips, Amy closed her eyes and pulled Karma closer. If she's going to wake up soon from this, she'll cherish every moment. She'll cherish the way Karma's lips feel against hers and the way Karma's hand is buried in her blonde locks and the way Karma is gripping the back of her neck with the other hand as if she never wanted the kiss to end.
Wake up, said the voice inside Amy's head. This is just a dream. Wake up.
Amy pulled away, her eyes still closed. Karma sighed and rested her forehead against Amy's.
"Whoa." Karma whispered.
No. Amy's grip on Karma's hips tightens. Please don't say anything else. Let me think it's just a dream, please.
But it wasn't a dream. No matter how hard Amy wants it to be just a dream, it isn't. Karma kissed her and she kissed Karma back. Now, she's afraid to open her eyes. Afraid that if she did, Karma will say something that will crush her heart.
Karma, on the other hand, had her eyes closed too. One of her hand still buried in Amy's hair and the other caressing the back of Amy's neck. This is perfect, Karma thinks. This is way perfect to what I've wanted.
They stood in the same position for another minute or two before Karma leaned in again and touched her lips against Amy's. The blonde's hands relaxed. Karma's hands now on the blonde's shoulder.
Slowly, Karma pulled away. Amy's hands now limp by her side.
It happened. It really did happened. The voice inside Amy's head chanted. You finally kissed Karma, what are you going to do now?
Amy took a step back, nervous. Unsure of what would happen next. What will Karma do? Will Karma say that they should pretend the kiss never happened? Because Amy's unsure if she can do that.
Karma noticed Amy stepping away from her, so she took a step back and took Amy's right hand between hers. She can feel the blonde tensed at her touch and she knows it was caused by their kiss.
"Amy," Karma started. "I know that we've been friends since we were five. We just moved here and I had no friends then and when I saw you here, I thought that maybe you'd be my first friend but you looked so scared then that you ran away from me. But, two weeks after that, we saw each other again. I could tell that you were nervous seeing me again. I bet you thought I'd give up." She let out a laugh and Amy smiled.
"Yeah, I thought so. But, yeah, I didn't gave up because I really wanted to know you. And then we became friends. My mom said that we were platonic soul mates because we bring out the best in each other and she's right about that. Lately, though, I'm starting to question the connection we have."
Amy sighed and tried to pull her hand away but Karma had a firm grip on her hand.
Karma looked down, "I want to figure it out, trust me I do but it's hard to do it alone. I want to figure it out with you by my side. Amy, I know that it's a huge deal for you to let me read your notebook. That page you opened up, I know you were nervous and scared because I'm reading this part of you that I haven't seen when I was away. I know that feeling because I've felt it when you ignored my messages. It may not be the same scary feeling, but we both know that we're afraid of losing each other.
But I'm back now, and I want us to continue where we left off or we can start over again. We'll talk. We'll fix what needs fixing between us, we'll figure things out with each other. I love you, Amy, and I want to see where this thing will take us."
With a smile, Amy nodded her head in agreement. She pulled Karma into her arms and kissed Karma's temple, content to have her best friend and the girl she love in her arms.
A/N: If there is any mistake, that's on me. (My native language isn't English.) Also, this is the first complete story I wrote after 7 years, I'm still rusty on the narration side because I haven't worked on it for years. I was and still too busy reading lines of programming codes and making sense of it.
Anyway, criticism is welcome-good or bad, as long as it will help me down the line.
P.S. I am aware that there was no reason told why Amy never speak, I did it on purpose.