Hey guys... long time no see...
It's quite a while since the previous shocking chapter. I think you can guess where the ending will lead to. I hope that thing doesn't bother you to read the continuation of this story.
Right... without further ado... let's get this over with. Happy reading!
A few hours ago...
3rd person POV
When the sun hadn't showned up its face to this small town... Jewel, at that time, she had opened her turquoise eyes which were busy re-correcting the script she had written with Hyacinthum G because this day was the deadline.
She corrected the script while walking down the hallway and was about to go down the stairs. Maybe because she was too focused on the sheet of paper in front of her... she, without any obvious cause, lost her balance and fell down.
Unfortunately, her head hit the wall quite hard...
"Ouch..."
Jewel tried to get up while holding her head, holding back the pain. When she was sitting on the floor to pick up the scattered script... without her noticing it, suddenly there was a red liquid coming from her forehead. That red liquid... that blood... stained the white sheet, turning it into bloody sheet. Jewel of course was very surprised by that... even so, she didn't have time for that. Because... after that... her consciousness faded, and she fainted.
However... her blood didn't stop flowing from her head until it forming a red puddle that flooded that already-red sheet...
A few hours passed, and when Jewel regained consciousness... she found herself on the hospital bed, once again, staring at the horizon through the window next to her...
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The next day...
Blu's POV
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Daytime in early September...
The three of us decided to visit Jewel after school, after hearing the shocking news yesterday... especially for me...
"What do you bring for her?" Gracie asked Roberto and me.
"Today I bring ice cream from DQ." Roberto who was walking beside me, said confidently while carrying his gift.
"Now it's autumn, you know." I responded, somewhat objected to the gift brought by him, "After all, his family also runs an ice cream shop."
"Then why?" Roberto instead asked back, "She likes it, doesn't she?"
"Hmm... well... what matters is her feelings though..." I then fell silent, unable to refute anymore.
"The other important thing is... do not let the ice cream melt." Gracie continued, walking beside him.
"This ice cream will always be fresh. I can guarantee that." Roberto answered, smiling confidently again.
After walking for fifteen minutes, we finally arrived. A wide-page hospital would never be forgotten from my mind. The stinging antiseptic smell... the terrazzo floor at the entrance to the linoleum floor in the medical ward...
"Hi Jewel..." Gracie opened the door for us.
"Come in..." as usual, Jewel welcomed us with her cheerful face. Indeed the IV had been removed from her left wing, but her head was still bandaged.
The three of us then stepped in...
"We brought you something..." Gracie showed the gift we brought.
"Ah... thanks." Jewel accepted it with a big smile.
"So... how are you?" after sitting beside her, she asked her condition.
"Much better. After undergoing a medical test, my condition began to feel better! " the answer was quite convincing as if she did look fine.
"Do you miss me?" Roberto began teasing her.
"I do miss you..." Jewel replied, chuckling.
'Twice in a short time...' I, who just stood there, whispered to myself...
"Huh? Did you say something?" Jewel could somehow hear my soft words just now. She turned to look at me...
"No... it's nothing." I replied, haltingly.
"I see..."
"But still..." Roberto then interrupted our conversation, "You surprised us. You didn't come to the submission of your script, then suddenly you were hospitalized."
"That's right... even having to be hospitalized. What really happened to you?" Gracie asked her again.
"Well... yesterday morning, when I was re-correcting the script... I lost my balance, then I fell and my head hit the wall." Jewel began to explain why she was rushed to such a place, "Suddenly... splash! The blood from my head spurts everywhere!"
"What?! That's a dangerous...!"
Of course, anyone who heard such a story would feel weird and horrified at the same time, especially Robeto and Gracie. Because she told us the tragic thing that happened to her rather dramatically, and seemed like a joke to her.
"Yes... that's how it is." Jewel smiled, "My parents were panicked, then I got rushed to the hospital."
You don't lie, right? You just underwent regular tests, right?
"Didn't you have had a medical test before?" I finally started asking my question.
Jewel looked at me, "Oh... that time was just an ordinary test, like scanning my head." she answered me, "This time, the medical test is quite complicated and requires me to stay here. Other than that... I'm also easily exhausted, and lately I've been spending too much on my energy. " she then opened the parcel we brought, "Woah... this ice cream looks delicious. Can I...?"
"Sure..." Gracie responded, feeling grateful that she was happy with the gifts we brought.
She took the wooden ice cream spoon, and began to eat her ice cream.
When the ice cream melted in her beak, "Hmmm... this is sooooo delicious..."
'Even when she's eating, she's wasting her energy.' I thought, seeing her move too much after tasting that ice cream.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Roberto exclaimed, then took his bag. He spit out all the contents of his backpack containing lots of books — only god knows where they came from — on her bed, "You must be bored all day in here. So, I also brought you a few books."
"How many books did you brought?!" Gracie was surprised to see the number of books coming out of his backpack, until she realized the ownership of those books, "Oh, isn't that all the property of the school library? You must have taken them without permission...! "
"Well, that's how it is... hehe..." Roberto nodded, chuckling.
"But it's too many, you know. Jewel will never have time to read all of them." Gracie continued, "Because she will go back to school when the new semester begin..." then she turned to look at Jewel, "Right, Jewel?"
"Yes..." Jewel nodded cheerfully.
This is just me, or indeed that answer had been rehearsed before...
Then, without us knowing it was time for us to go home soon. Almost two hours we are here, and now Jewel must rest...
"Kay then..." Gracie got up from her seat, "You should rest now."
"Yes..." Jewel nodded.
"See you tomorrow." I said, and she replied with her waving wings.
"Later we'll meet again... in my dreams." even until the last moment Roberto was still teasing her.
"That won't happen..." Jewel answered with a smiling face, yet seemed sadistic, "Bye..." she then waved her wings to the three of us until we were completely out of her room... leaving her alone.
3rd person POV
A moment of silence struck the room where Jewel was currently hospitalized. After giving a farewell to her friends, Jewel loocked at all the books that scattered on her bed...
"I can't have enough time to read all this though..." she said to herself.
She saw the books one by one until she found a book with a cover that caught her attention...
A girl who was sitting alone in her classroom staring at the sky...
She opened the book... page after page... when she opened the last page, she found a record of students who had borrowed this book from the library.
One of the names of students written there...
"Tyler Blu Gunderson..." Jewel read the name, "Looks like this is such an interesting book..."
Then there was a knock on the door...
"Excuse me, Jewel..." a nurse then opened the door, while accompanied by a medical cart filled with medicines.
"Please come in..." said Jewel kindly.
"Have your friends gone home?" asked the nurse.
"Yes..." Jewel nodded.
"Can we...?" asked the nurse again.
"Yes..." Jewel smiled at her, "Please, resume the IV drip."
A few days later...
Blu's POV
"Oh... Mr. Gunderson."
In the afternoon when I was about to go home after the school activities ended early that fall... my homeroom teacher called my name at the front door of the school.
I stopped, and turned to look at him, "Yes, Mr. Charles..." I replied politely.
My homeroom teacher, Mr. Charles, then walked over to me who was getting ready to go home, "Have you made your report?"
"What kind of report, sir?" I had no idea what report he meant. Am I really required to make such a thing?
"A career report..." he continued, explaining the purpose of the report.
"Career?" I asked again to clarify all this.
"Yes... your career. Career for your future..." Mr. Charles happily continued his explanation, "What are you going do after graduation?"
Oh, I see...
"Only you who haven't submitted your career report."
"I'm sorry, sir. I'll make it right away." I gave my answer after understanding the purpose of that report.
"Then... have you decided?" Mr. Charles asked me once again, "What do you want to do with your life?"
("I want to be a weird writer too.")
"I..." something like stopped me for a moment, "I haven't decided yet..."
"I see... you better decide soon. Because this is about your future... for your own good." Mr. Charles advised me.
"I understand, sir."
Shortly after giving my last answer, Mr. Charles immediately returned to the teacher's room... leaving me alone at the front door of the deserted school. Well, the sun has given its orange light, especially the autumn wind has begun to make my feathers shiver with cold...
Even so, there is one other thing I want to do first before went home...
"Ah... I'd better visit her..."
Moments later... I have found myself walking on the edge of the lake...
'As I thought... autumn has come... '
I told myself, staring at the trees around the lake. The leaves were yellowing, some were red too... and soon they would fall to the ground, or be blown by autumn breeze nowhere to be found.
'Is this okay? I came to visit without informing her in advance.' I asked myself, feeling doubtful about my plan, 'I really don't know how to contact her. I don't have neither her number nor her email address... I really don't know anything about her...'
Even though there was doubt in my heart not to go visit her... my steps couldn't be stopped, as if they had their own will. So in the end... moments after walking towards the hospital...
"Don't just stand there. Have a sit..."
Jewel who was still sitting on her patient's bed... with her smiling face... looked at me who had arrived here just standing beside her while staring at the sky that had turned dark through the window in front of me.
"It's okay..." I replied, "I'm more comfortable like this."
Tonight, only I alone came to visit her. The bandage on her head had been removed, but why did she still have to stay in such a place? What's more, the color of her feathers in my opinion increasingly fades... even her face also looks pale now.
"You're such a weird bird..." Jewel chuckled, "You came to visit someone yet just stood there dumbfounded."
You're going to be fine, right? You didn't lie about the medical test, right?
"So, how's your book?" she asked again, "Have you written your own Chapters of Life?"
I'm the one who was shocked by such a question just being silent... unable to answer it right away...
"Roberto told me, you know. He said that you rewrote the script we made, even you changed the plot a little."
"Yeah..." I simply nodded
"Why?" she continued by asking me, "Everyone thought you will resign... why? Why were you still move forward?"
Why... huh? I also didn't know either. Even though you were the one who really looked forward to that day. But why... why did I keep move forward?
Well, I thought the answer was quite clear in my head...
"I just wanted to reply to her story." I replied, smiling at her, "My mother's story..."
Jewel seemed to listen to my explanation with interest because her smile seemed to widen...
"At first, as usual my wings were trembled, I couldn't move them. But slowly, my memories of my mother emerged from within me, and those memories moved my wings. Memories come into words, sentences and paragraphs... and I could see them flying into the sky along with the cool summer wind." I continued, explaining.
Right... all my memories of my mother... everything has been sealed in every word she wrote in her books...
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"Blu... you're sleeping again here..."
That was my mother's voice when we were sitting quietly under a tree in our front yard. I, who was still a child, fell asleep on her lap when she was making something with that pencil and paper...
"You'll catch a cold, you know..."
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"I see..." then, Jewel's voice suddenly brought me back to the present, "You are indeed a writer... Tyler Blu Gunderson..."
Ahh... As I thought. The reason she chose that title for our script... insisted on keeping that title, Chapter of Life... she did it all for me...
Chapter of Life always reminds me of my mother. Her feelings written at the end of her life really thickened in my memory...
The peaceful and calm view of Moosehead Lake... the shadow of the trees shading our heads... the smell of fresh grass... the scent of my mother... the sound of the shaking caused by her pencil and paper...
"This is the second time..." I replied, but it seems that Jewel doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase that I haven't finished yet, "This is the second time you called my name..."
Her face looked a little surprised, then returned to smile though turning her gaze away from me for a certain reason yet I didn't know... her eyes became teary...
"Ahh... I want to still be able to read your book again..." she said, turning her gaze away from me, but I knew she was holding back her tears so it wouldn't flow out.
I totally had no idea what she was saying...
'If you want to read my book, I can bring you one, you know. Why are you crying? You don't lie about your medical tests, right? You will definitely come and bother me again, right? We will write a book together again, right? We will argue again in that room, right?'
There were so many things that block my mind that I couldn't spit it out...
"I want to write a book with you again..." she still continued her unreasonable words...
'Of course we will write a book again together... you won't say you're going to quit school, right? We can still see each other, right? You won't leave me...
Chapter 29 : Liar
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like my mother did, right?'
