A Wish (Part 2)

We stay quiet, a nice peaceful quiet, while looking at those pretty lights in the sky. Here, you can see them real well. There’s no blocking of the clouds, no streetlights, or lights of rushing cars, just peace. Now I know what Cathy meant with: “Nature is the entrance to big dreams and great serenity.” Indeed; it does make me wonder. This is some quality time for yourself. “The stars are pretty wonderful if you take time for them…”
“Huh? What did you say?” I say turning my face to Sydney.
“Oh, it’s nice to see the stars,” Sydney says.
“Oh,” I say looking at the stars, “Yeah they’re nice. My friend-” I stop right there. I don’t even know him for that long, and besides, I never really share this. It just seems like I’ve known him for a long time.
Sydney frowns.
“Yeah, they’re… uh… real nice,” I say a little pink.
“Oh… okay…” He says confused.
“Well if you want to know the truth-”
“Yeah?” He says in a prompting matter.
“Promise me; you won’t laugh at me?” I ask him. I kind of do want to tell him, but on the other side, want to keep to myself. If you ever felt this feeling you know how tempting it is.
“Sure,” he promises, “you got me really interested…”
“Well, as I already said it’s about my friend,” I start. It’s hard to say, but I’ll keep it as plain as possible, “She was a good friend… yeah,” I trail off. I don’t what to say. With Sydney looking and me thinking of my old days; it was just too much. I inhale a deep breath. Alright Robin, you can do this. It’s not hard. I think to myself. “Actually, it took place- I mean it started, whenever my parents separated, it wasn’t actually a divorce, but my dad needed to get rid of alcohol. It was weird. New school, new home, and all that good stuff- I basically had zero friends. But then I met Cathy; the friend I was talking about, who really helped me out… And, well, she enjoyed looking at stars. And my mother, not as much, but she- she liked it,” I say. I swallow hard and say whatever is hard to say: “They died.”
“What?” Sydney says.
“Well, they THINK Cathy died,” I correct.
“Ah, wow. They didn’t find a body?”
“No, but she didn’t come back, and the playground on which she was last seen was overloaded with kids and parents…” I say, “If you know what I mean…”
“How long ago was this?” Sydney said with a confused look.
“Long. I was seven. And I still remember…”
“Did your mother die too?” he said looking horrified.
“Yeah, one week after Cathy’s death, and I remember it too clearly.”
“Nobody knows?”
“Only dad, but he didn’t know Cathy and simply abandoned me for his grief for mom,” I say. I’m at the point of crying, but I try to keep it in. I might as well be mad at dad for leaving me behind for mom. It might sound stupid; me watching stars, me still being sad, and stuff like that, but it’s just in that time mom and Cathy were my world, part of my heart, and still that part is missing. So watching stars is my way to fill it…
“What happened?” He asks gently. I should have known he was going to ask that. I think about it. How am I going to tell this? All of this memory comes back. The scream. The steps. The woman. Mom. I would have been dead if it weren’t for the tree hut, in which I fled. I think a while, and decide to say:
“Well,” I say staring shocked– like when I found mom dead on the ground- at the fire, “she got murdered…”
“Are you okay?” He says looking at my expression, “Did I get you into- I’m sorry… Are you okay? Do you need help? I’m so-”
“It’s okay,” I interrupt allowing him to be just a little comforted, “I’m just tired.”
“Sleep?” He asks.
“Yeah,” I say. I don’t really say this with pure thankfulness or sadness, it’s kind of in the middle.
We go to bed with the stars still out.