Lucy's Reminiscence
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
I looked up to see Levy teary eyed beside the bar.
"It's…beautiful," the bluenette whispered, barely audible. I nodded and wiped a tear from my own eye.
I read that poem at my mother's funeral, over thirty years ago. WH Auden wrote the most beautiful and most heart-breaking poem I could think of. It described every feeling I held in my fragile body at the time. The years that passed after her death were just as bad, just as sorrowful and lonely as the day she died. I was alone, yet surrounded by people.
"Lucy?" I looked up at my best friend and managed a smile, somehow. She smiled back.
After all those years of deceit and lies, I found a place I could call home. A place where I could be loved. A place where I had a family. A place where Natsu was. Yes, Natsu saved me from my well off despair. He saved me from wallowing in sadness forever. He taught me to open my heart, to trust my nakama. He showed me that my life was worth living.
He proved to me that people can do anything, he looked for Igneel almost all his life. He lost his father the same day I lost my mother. We share a burden that goes deeper than anything, it's what made our bond grow. It grew every time he saved me, every time we fought side-by-side. We'll always stay beside each other, forever.
I always knew one thing, though. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel, like a rainbow after the rain. Those that love us never truly leave us, they stay in our hearts forever. If we treasure their memory then they will live on forever.
I looked at my pink-haired daughter who was playing with her father by the door of the guild. I hoped she would never understand the pain her parents felt when they were her age. I know I can't be there for her forever but I always told her to stay strong. We'll always be there for her. Like my mother was for me.
One day, hopefully not too soon, I'll see her again. I'll see her and I'll be with her forever, in the world beyond the clouds, beyond the moon, beyond the stars. She'll be there, waiting for me to return to her. And I will, eventually.