AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My shoulders are akin to rocks, weighing me down as I wet my lips and swallow hard.
“What is it?” I manage to say calmly in my low tone as I straighten up.
This could be anything—another thought, another story, another fantasy.
She extracts her notebook from her bag and places it on her legs. “My brother, Jamey, wanted you to tattoo him,” she immediately goes to the final page, “I sketched what he wanted.”
A vibrant jellyfish.
It’s the same drawing I saw in the shop when she forgot her notebook.
For Jamey.
“He told me about you and I followed your social media for several years before I came here.” She confesses. “He was a huge fan of your work and he had an appointment at your shop but he died a week before.”
Her finger trails over the different lines and shapes crossing the page.
“I come here every year to visit him.” She chokes on her words, “It makes me feel closer to him in a way, watching everything he witnessed hours before he passed.” A slippery tear falls down her cheek before more follow.
“This is where he died,” she rubs circles around her neck trying to soothe herself and I immediately blanket her and press her against me. “I thought he would like to meet you here.”
“Lenny.” The lump grows in my throat.
My eyes akin to hers, brimming with tears.
Her soft hands clutch onto me as she continues sobbing, “He was my ray of sunshine.” She sniffles, and sheds more tears, “Losing him was the hardest thing I had gone through.” She snivels and a shuddered cry erupts from her chest, lamenting the death of her brother.
I hold her for long minutes, letting her unpack it all. I fight the urge not to cry myself but hearing her pain and sorrow breaks me and a string of tears free me from the weight I carried.
Her dearest memory is her brother. Her love for him warms my heart. He supported her every step of the way. The last thing he left on this earth was this van and it became her refuge. Her home. A part of him she could lean on.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose someone you love and adore in a tragic accident. It’s inconceivable. Going on a trip, celebrating with your friends, being young and reckless only to be killed by some madman.
It fills me with sadness. It boils my blood. And brings wrath to the energy around me.
Timing is everything.
One day before or the day after and things could’ve been different, but who knows? We can’t change the past. We can’t change actions or time frames. We can’t decide or know when things will happen or not. We wish to, but life doesn’t work that way.
It doesn’t have a script written down, as much as we want to believe there is, there isn’t. Real-life twists can be beautiful, blissful, humorous, life-changing, tormenting, unpredictable, and brutal.
This is life.
We live one day at a time.
Meeting Lennon and hearing her story brought light into my own in more ways than one.
She outshines everything but she forced me to face my demons and win them once and for all. Not all of them will go away and surely not fast but some disappeared or went silent. Maybe it’s me who changed my perspective and finally, after all those years truly made peace with the past.
I can’t change it, and even if I could, I wouldn’t have changed a damn thing.
The world is a broken place that is beyond repair. It doesn’t matter how creatively people try to paint their beautiful reality endless spots are tainting their image. Whether they see it or not.
Knowing the snake has venom wouldn’t save you from it, nor would you run away.
That’s why I’m always watching over those who matter to me the most.
“Jamey, you have the best sister in the world and it’s an honor to know you both.”
