Waiting For You || Self-Para
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Like teardrops from the heaven, the silver strings fell. Down, down, down to the waiting mouth of the earth, ready to absorb the drops, ready to take the sadness and the pain of the clouds as its own for the sake of the gray fluff looming heavy with the burden it carried.
The rain pattered on the roof, and Benjy could only watch as the drops fell from the sky. He could only look out the window, his eyes glassy with the longing he felt. It flooded him full to the brim, fueling the urge to open the window in anticipation for the owl he knew would come...the owl he hoped would come carrying the letter he desperately wished he would get.
It had been weeks since Glenda's first letter. Weeks since he'd last heard from her.
Too long...
Too long...
Still, no more came. And inside the shelter of his own room, safe from harm, safe from anyone wanting to hurt him, he felt like he was violating a law of nature. He felt like somehow, him just sitting there, waiting, not able to do anything, was an anomaly. It was like he was crossing out, omitting, an important part of a mathematical equation. It was like one item was stolen from the balance, tipping it sideways. Unequal. Incomplete. And as he looked out the window, a spectator of the rain, he realized...
He was the earth, he was the soil.
Glenda was the cloud.
And the rain...
The rain...
Teardrops...
Liquid pain...
He shouldn't be here. He shouldn't be inside. He should be out there. With Glenda.
Like the heavy cloud outside, she was sagging with the weight of the pain she carried. Right now, wherever she was, she could be crying. The sky could be crying because it was sympathizing with Glenda.
Somewhere out there, Benjy's cloud could be crying.
And she needed him. She needed him to absorb the tears, to absorb the pain, to be there to catch it fall and make it his own. He had to be there as she empties herself of all the grief, of all the pain. So that once it was over...they could watch the rainbow appear together.
He shouldn't be here. He should be with her.
But he didn't know where she was. Where? Where? Where would he go? There were no letters. Nothing. He received none but the lone one she first sent. He kept waiting. He kept waiting for her.
Where...
Where...
Where...
As the rain dropped from the sky, the echo of a question bounced around Benjy's room.
Drip...Where? Drip...Where? Where? Where?
Unknown to him, just outside his house, an owl just landed, both wet with the pain that the sky showered all the lands, and wet with the grief that fell from the face of the girl that had attached yet another letter in its beak.
The owl landed with a light clunk. A hand reached out to take the letter. And...rip, rip, riiiiiiiip goes the letter. A swish that signalled the opening of a drawer. One firm slide over the surface of the table, shoving the broken paper carrying a broken heart aside. The strips landed on and the waiting mouth of the open drawer, uniting with the already ripped pieces of the other letter that came before it.
Bang! goes the drawer as it closed with haste and force.
"Honey, what are you doing there?" A male voice travelled through the house, raspy, older.
"Nothing, love." A female. Shaking. Lying. "Call Benjy, it's time for supper."
As the young boy waited, like the soil of the earth that he should be, waiting to catch the pain of the girl he was waiting for, he did not know he was on the wrong side of the door.
It wasn't the earth that caught the tears that the cloud shed that day. It was the empty and dark mouth of a drawer. It was the darkness and emptiness of a void.
If only he'd known, he'd have saved her. If he'd only known...he could have been there for her. If only he was told. If only nobody interfered. If only nobody broke the balance of nature.
Soon they'd learn that regret always came later. The balance shall tip back, and when it does, the truth will come out.
The truth will come out. Loud. Ringing. And it shall break everything...