A little girl.
Her hair was medium brown with light brown highlights pulled back in two pigtails. She was dressed in a black shirt, dark green skirt that went down just past her pale knees and black baby dolls shoes, no socks.
When she looked up at him through short messy bangs Timmy saw her eyes were light brown with flecks of dark brown around the middle.
"You looked so sad." She told him in a sweet innocent voice cocking her head to the side. "You need a hug."
She tightened her embrace and rested her head on his shoulder. Again Timmy found himself in a garden of raspberries. Before he could find himself entangled again he pushed her back away from him.
"Who are you?" he demanded frowning down at the slightly smaller child.
"My name is Ember Delune, who are you?"
Those eyes, Timmy thought in a daze, so big and innocent. She frowned shaking him out of his revere.
"Timmy Jordan." He exclaimed and scowled. "Tim Jordan."
Ember laughed, "Well Tim Timmy Jordan, why so sad? Why are you sad on a pretty night like this?"
He scowled, "No reason."
"Then you shouldn't be sad." She exclaimed. She spun in a circle, lifting her hands up to the sky. "It's a great night. Cloudless, cool but not too cool, just right."
Timmy smiled faintly. Such a strange child…
Ember laughed and turned toward him, "I like nights. They're a time where everything is hushed. It's like the world has held its breath and is awaiting something…"
"Wondrous." He finished when her words fell away as her eyes went dreamy. Her eyes focused back on him and she smiled.
"Yeah, wondrous. Something wondrous to occur."
Timmy's faint smile grew clearer as he watched the small girl dance around him with her laughing face lifted up toward the sky. Her laughter began to captivate him. It was sweet, in an innocent childlike way. It held hope that he had lost many years ago. It sang with happiness that made Timmy remember days filled with the smells of summer and fresh from the oven cookies cooling in a window.
Ember stopped dancing and turned to him again as she asked, "What do you suppose the world is waiting to occur? What do you think is so wondrous that everything has to be quiet or they'll miss it."
"Easy. It's the first sounds of those who awake into a new day. The first chirps of songbirds, the chattering of animals." Timmy laughed quietly. "The sound of an owl swooping to its den. A sighs of relief of its prey. The heartbeat of nature."
"The heartbeat of nature." Ember whispered in awe. "That's real pretty Tim. Did you read that in a book somewhere?"
He chuckled, "No. I—I made it up."
Ember giggled, "You should be a poet when you grow up. You'd be really good, I bet."
His smile turned ironic, "When I grow up." He said quietly.
She embraced him again with a laugh, "Yeah, just think of it. There won't be anyone to tell you what to do. Nobody to say 'Don't do that' or 'Get back in here, you'll catch a cold.'"
Her eyes went dreamy again as her and Timmy danced around the lamp lit streets, "You could stay out all night to listen to nature's heartbeat. Watch the sky turn from midnight to pale blue. See the sun make her journey across the sky in peace. It'll be wondrous."
Timmy found himself being enveloped in Ember's dream. If he closed his eyes, he could see himself older, sitting on the roof of his home watching the chameleon like sky change its colors. He saw himself smile as an older Ember joined him on the roof, her laughter still the same after all the years that passed.
"It never gets dull does it, Tim." She told him with a bright smile. "Every day that comes and goes. Every night we've seen, it's a new experience, right?"
He closed his eyes and smiled, "A wondrous new experience each and every time."
Ember sat down next to him and gazed up at the sky, watching as each new star twinkled into view. The sky turns from bright pale blue to a deep indigo and still they do not move. Both their eyes close but they do not slumber.
This was their time. Their special moment to spend as they want, as they please. This was his dream.
"What do you suppose they're thinking." a youthful Ember asked drawing him back to the present. When Timmy frowned, she laughed and pointed to a building in front of them. He cocked his head and examined it.
It looked like any other brick building he had seen before but he saw what caught Ember's eye. Up one story, standing on the fire escape was two people. With his vampire eyesight, Timmy could see that it was a man and woman. With his acute hearing, Timmy could hear every word that was said. All the confessions of hate spoken.
But to Ember, they were two shadowy figures in the night. Both with a story that could be told, a life that was unknown.
"Do you think they're listening to nature's heartbeat?" Ember asked wistfully then added sourly, "Or do you think they're arguing."
Timmy sighed, he could tell her the truth. But for some reason he wanted to see the girl smile and laugh again. She was pretty when she was happy, he thought to himself.
"I think, maybe, they're two lovers out enjoying the peace of the evening. They ran away from home and …"
"And away from their family who disapproved of their love." Ember exclaimed. "He's worked all day while she's waiting tables and…"
"Getting yelled at. Now they're alone, safe in each other's arms expressing their hard-earned love. Each speaking words of twilight, words of serenity and starlight."
"They surrender to one another's care, forgetting all their woe, forgetting all the day's pain and hardship."
"All there is for them is the beauty of the darkness." Timmy whispers.
"That's pretty." She whispered as they walked away, then turned to him to say "Did you make that up too?"
He busted up laughing, "Yeah, I kinda did."
Ember smiled, "You should write it down so people can read your pretty words, Tim. Leave something of yourself behind so people a hundred years later can hear your pretty words."
Timmy chuckled and took her hand in his own. She's so innocent and unaware, he thought with a smile. She doesn't know that in a hundred years, I'll still be here, the same as I am now.
"So what do you think of my idea?" she asked a moment later. Timmy snapped himself out of his musings and returned his attention toward her.
"What idea?"
Ember scowled prettily and huffed. Timmy almost laughed at the adorable picture she made. But he smothered his grin and waited for her to repeat her idea.
"Writing a book, getting published." She told him. "You could do it. All you have to do is ask an adult to write down what you wanted to say."
"That is if you don't know how to spell." Ember added as an afterthought with a faint blush. This time Timmy did laugh.
You are too cute Ember Delune, He told her silently. Aloud he said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed."
Ember's embarrassment turned to amusement and she too laughed, "No, it's okay. It's a lot better to laugh than to be upset."
Timmy smiled and strangely the girl blushed again. Why did she do that I wonder?
A comfortable silence came between them. One full of night sounds that Timmy had heard most of his life but now seen in a different light. The muted sounds of traffic. The chirp of the cricket. The rustle of wind caressing leaves. Each one was seen through the eyes of his innocent companion that twinkled and danced in the moonlight.
"What do you want to be whenever you grow up?" Timmy asked breaking the silence. A distant but sad look floated over Ember's features but passed like it had never been there.
"I want to be a doctor." She replied brightly. "Or maybe a photographer. Or a musician."
"You don't know?"
Ember shrugged, "I want to do something that'll make people feel happier than what they were before." She was silent for a moment before looking over at Timmy. "What about you?"
He was quiet.
"I'm never growing up." He replied softly. When she frowned he smiled and said, "I'm gonna go off to Neverland and become a Lost Boy."
Ember laughed, "I wanna go too."
"Then let's." Timmy said as he offered his arm to her.
"Alright." She replied as she took it.
