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CHAPTER SIX IF YOU LIE DOWN WITH ME
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[ TWO YEARS AGO ]
Golden fluorescence lights the bedroom. There's a lamp made of transparent glass that sits on the wooden bedside table and countless hand-made candles that scatter across the dresser. Alaska stares at the wall beside her bed— a wall that she has dedicated to the pictures she manages to collect over the years.
Her eyes scan across each picture, their intricate placements becoming an instinct inside her mind. The pictures of Alaska and Ellie, others with Dina and Jesse, a few with Tommy and Maria, and even one or two with Joel. This wall holds memories of all the people she cares for the most.
She sticks a new picture to the wall with a piece of tape.
It had been taken earlier that day just outside of Jackson. The pink and purple hues of the sunset are in the distance, dark exposure of the lively green trees fill up the four corners of the picture. And at the center, Ellie plays her guitar by the bonfire as Alaska sits beside her, leaning her head in the palm of her hand with the most enchanted gaze.
Dina had taken the candid, only giving it to Alaska when Ellie had run off to talk to some other Jackson folks. Alaska smiles to herself at the thought of having this physical proof of something so real. Something that can't be taken away from her, no matter how much time passes.
Alaska doesn't know why her heart begins to beat faster at the sight of this picture. Maybe it's the fact that, in the moment, she couldn't focus on anything besides Ellie. It was as if the rest of the world had been tuned out, as if they had purely existed for each other and no one else.
The fact that Dina had somehow captured such a moment in a simple photograph makes a smile grow on Alaska's face.
She sighs to herself, finally getting herself to look away from the wall. She decides to distract herself from the confusing feelings that enter her mind and flow through her body. And to do so, she decides to write. To be honest, Alaska isn't necessarily one to write. Not like Ellie does, at least. But Ellie had insisted that writing helps with letting certain things out. Alaska has too many thoughts that blur together— so many memories that inevitably follow her like a shadow. She figures that writing them down will organize them.
