With a sigh, Maya Matlin looked at the garden. People would say how amazing it was that she could even set foot there after what had happened, but considering that everyone insisted on treating her like a porcelain doll anyway, she didn't even care. When the numbness had faded, she'd felt a blinding surge of pain. The longer she'd remained in shock, the more startling it was when it hit, and she was left with physical and psychological exhaustion that reduced her to mostly silence in her waking state. "Zombie" was the word she'd heard on more than one occasion as of late. Now, she sat amidst the falling snow, surely risking her health, but she didn't care. She didn't have the energy to move just yet.
At that, something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. There, in one of the plant boxes Jake had painstakingly created, she saw something unusual. Most of the garden was covered with a dusting of snow. But there, in the corner of the plant box, she saw a tiny dot of green poking through the white. Maya's brow furrowed as she leaned forward, looking down at the clover that stood proudly and unaffected by the cold. As she looked at it, something seemed to hit her as a cold wind swept through the garden, touching her cheek not with a brutal slap she'd become accustomed to growing up in Canada's winters, but with something much more tender. Maya looked up, her breathing slightly shallow.
"Cam?" she said. Another light touch of the wind gently blew strands of blonde hair against her cheek. "Oh my…"
There was no mistaking it. She'd never before given much thought to the afterlife or the existence of ghosts, but she couldn't deny what she felt. All logic would disappear out the window when it came to what the heart could sense. It was then that Maya realized she was surrounded by reminders of Cam everywhere, and not just the memories that took place in the garden before that last day. The snow, taking her back to the time she'd learned how to skate, where she and Cam could move as one along the ice. The clover, a symbol of the shared belief in lucky charms. And the touch of the wind, as close to the familiar brush of his hand to her cheek whenever they kissed.
Maya knew Cam was gone. She'd been told so many times that it was becoming a broken record in her head. But seeing and feeling so much of him in that very moment shined a new realization on the sad situation. They were wrong, all of them. Cam wasn't really gone. Even if she couldn't see him, she knew he was there. The wind, the clover, even the snowflakes that drifted down onto her skin, hair, eyelashes. Cam was there. He would never truly leave her. And his presence was so different than it had been in life. For days the garden had been shrouded in sadness by those who didn't understand what she did now. She could feel a sense of inner peace that she realized had been absent for so long. Cam was at peace. Cliches aside, he truly was in a better place. Wherever that was, he was happy there. She could feel that he missed her, but he wanted her to be okay. Even in life, Cam was like that. He wanted her to be happy. And she'd wanted nothing more than for him to be happy.
With a smile, Maya got to her feet, looking up at the sky. She closed her eyes, holding out her arms. Slowly, gently as she had when she'd learned to skate, she twirled in the garden, letting the snowflakes swirl around her. Maya didn't care who could see her or what they'd think. She was dancing with Cam once again, basking in his presence. If he was going to watch over her, she'd have to do her best to make him proud. Their last night together, he had expressed his excitement for her being considered for the youth orchestra. She owed it to him to stay on that track, to wake up and live her life as it had been intended. It would take time, but she'd do it. But for now, she had class to get to. After all, she had a long journey ahead of her.
"I'll see you, Cam," she said to the sky. It wasn't goodbye, she told herself. They would see each other again, but until then, she would see him in the clouds, hear him in a badly, but joyously sung karaoke song, or feel his touch in the wind.
With a small smile, she left the magic garden, taking the first steps towards what would be her destiny.
A/N: For those who wanted Maya to break down after Cam's death hit her, I do apologize. I wanted to give them both closure, and I feel like since Maya wanted Cam to be happy, and she can sense that he is truly at peace now, she would be able to come to terms with his death and understand that it will be okay in the end.
The final chapter should be up tomorrow! Thanks for the reads and reviews!