Someone should write a book where the main character slowly falls in love with the reader.
I donāt know you, okay? Youāre a stranger to me. I didnāt ask for you to peek your nose into my business, now did I? No, no I did not. How would you like it if someone suddenly appeared in your life?
Let me tell you what youāre going to do. Youāre going to shut this book right now. Let the cover rest on the title page, and leave me enveloped in my own dark little world.
What? I canāt understand you, but I can sense what you mean. You want to know if I like being alone here, in the dark. Well, I mean, itās all Iāve ever known. Until you came along, there was only me, existing in these pages. Why would I wish for something when Iāve known nothing else?
I have to admit, though ⦠The light youāre reading from feels nice. Iāve never seen my world in quite this way before. The stark blacks of the letters are taking shape, becoming a home for me to live in even as you read.
Maybe Iāll let you stay for awhile. Maybe Iāll enjoy this light for a little longer with you.
āSo I guess this is it, isnāt it? There are no more chapters, right? You said we were getting close and that was a while ago.ā
I stared up into the sky, it was the same old sky there had always been, except for some rainclouds that hadnāt been there a few minutes ago. It wasnāt raining, but they were still floating up there, grey and dismal.
You begin to ask me something.
āDonāt ask me how I know, I just do. Things just feel really final right now, like the downward slope is starting to level out. Eventually⦠Weāll hit the back cover, right?ā
I sat down on a bench- had that been there a few minutes ago? It was hard to tell.
āDid you say yes? I think I heard you. Your voice keeps getting harder to hear.ā
Thunder rumbled, but⦠It wasnāt like the thunder Iām used to. It sounded like you, and it sounded sad. From one of the clouds, a single drop of rain fell on the grainy wood of the bench.
ā⦠Youāre crying, arenāt you? Iām sorry, Iām really sorry. I wish I could change this. I wish I could reach where you are.ā
Thunder rolled again, and behind it was a voice. Your voice.
āMe? Iāll be fine, I think. I donāt know if this has ever happened before. I donāt really know what happens when you⦠close the book.ā
You ask me if Iām afraid.
āNo, actually. Because⦠Whatever happens to me when you close the cover⦠You can always open the book up again, right?ā and thatās when the answer hits me, the realization jolting me to stand again. āThatās it, isnāt it? You can open it back up. The words wonāt change, but Iāll still be here. You can meet me all over again, and I can meet you, and everything we have will come back.ā
Itās raining now, and the clouds have merged together, and in them, for the first time⦠I see you.
You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my entire life.
Youāre crying, but itās quiet, and maybe that was the sound of your tears hitting paper.
I realize that we donāt have a lot of time.
āListen- before itās all over- I want you to know that everything, all of this⦠Even being over, it was worth it. It was worth it to meet you, to get to know you. Even if when you close that cover and I disappear- it was all worth it. I love you.ā
You love me too, I know it, I can feel it, just like for a moment I can feel what it would be like to hold your hand.
There is a very long pause, and I realize youāre prolonging what has to happen.
For the first time, you have to be the hero. You have to close the book so we can keep going. And I believe in you.
The sky gets darker, slowly, but then it gets light again, and your face is still up in those clouds. You open your mouth and for the first time I HEAR you, not just feel what youāre saying or understand you in my own head, your voice comes through the pages in your world and into the reality of mine, and it reverberates and I can hear every little nuance, down to the hitch from you crying.
āIāll never forget you,ā you say. āIāll come back soon.ā