Fate

Stop Running

"No! I'm not going to do it. Just plain no!" Melody was frustrated. She was on Skype with her publicist and the conversation was not going well at all. She felt the eyes of strangers all around the airport staring at her. They had every right to. The conversation she was having had gotten heated and she must've looked like a crazy person sitting there alone with headphones in her ears, screaming at an unknown being.
"Melody, listen. This is a good thing. Everyone wants your stories and photos. LA Times, Chicago Times, Even TIME itself wants it! But they also want you. The face behind the stories and pictures."
"Darren you don't get it. I'm not the face behind those stories and pictures. The people I meet and the beauty of the Earth, those are the faces. Not me. I'm not going to parade around and pretend that this was all my doing. I was just there, in the right moment, doing what comes naturally. "
"Melody, please. We aren't going to get anywhere if you keep running."
His words hit her like a ton of bricks.
"I am not running from anything Darren!"
"Really? Then where are you headed to next?" Darren paused to wait for a reply.
"First of all it's none of your business to know but if you must, I'm going to Japan."
"Why there?"
"Because it's just where I need to be right now!"
She wasn't going to tell Darren the real reason. He had no right to know. This was her life, her journey, and her happiness at stake.
"You always say that." Darren looked annoyed with her.
"Melody, just think about it. It's just a few interviews. While you're in Japan, please just consider coming back to the states."
She mulled over what he said as she chewed on her tongue.
"I don't know Darren. I just don't know." She put her head in her hand and closed her eyes.
"Can I ask you something?" She waited for Darren to reply.
"Sure Mel. What is it?"
"What is a good way to tell someone 'I've considered it and my answer is still no'?"
Before he could even get two words out in reply she quickly shut her laptop on him and ripped the headphones from her ears.
This was not how she wanted to spend her layover. She was tired and hungry. Her coffee was gone and sitting here fighting over Skype wasn't helping.
"Who is he?" She heard from behind her. Melody turned around and saw an elderly woman dressed in a track suit and sneakers mindlessly knitting.
"I'm sorry?"
"The guy. Who is he?" The woman looked directly at her as she turned in her chair.
"Oh, that. Him. Well that was just my publicist. He wants-"
"No, not him. The guy in Japan?" The woman had caught her off guard with the question. Melody gathered her things and moved to the next table so she could sit across from this knitting woman.
"How did you?"
"Because you have that look. The look of someone who has decided to stop running away and start running towards."
The woman finished her knitting row, flipped her work around, and began knitting again.
"I'm not running away from anything. I just like traveling to new places."
The woman nodded but Melody could tell she didn't believe her.
"When I was your age, way back before all this computer chatting nonsense, there was a man in my life. He was so handsome. Eyes as clear as the sky on a hot summer day. He was a few years older than me and my parents disapproved but I didn't care. I loved him from the moment he asked me for directions to the market. Then the war took him away. I sat and waited every day for him to return. I clung to his letters at night and prayed for his safety. Then the war ended and he never came back. I was heartbroken. I felt like the war happened just to tear me to shreds. I hated it. So one day I gathered up all of my things and what little money I had to my name and left." The woman put down her knitting on the table and stared off into space.
"A few years later I got a letter in the mail. He had been injured in war and was embarrassed to see me. For me to see him mangled. I spent the next 5 years searching for my love."
"Did you find him?"
The woman looked directly at her and Melody saw a single tear roll down the woman's cheek.
"No. Shortly after the letter he sent me he had passed. Natural causes they said but I knew it wasn't true. It was because of his broken heart."
"I'm so sorry." Melody just sat there in silence, staring at this woman and waited for her to speak again. When she finally did, she grabbed Melody's hand and said, "Don't run away my dear. Love doesn't happen but once in a lifetime. Search for him. Stop running away and start running towards."
The woman leaned over to her bag that was sitting on the chair next to her and pulled out a thick grey scarf.
"I made this for my love when I went searching for him again. Give it to yours when you find him."
Melody took the scarf and held it between her hands like it was the most expensive thing in the world.
"But I barely know him," she managed to choke out as she felt tears in her own eyes starting to form.
"They say love is blind darling but if you trust in it enough, it will always lead you to where you need to be."
They sat in silence for a few more minutes before a voice over the loud speaker announced a gate that was boarding.
"That's me my dear. Remember what I said."
The woman began to gather her things up as she stood from the table.
"Wait! Please. Just a moment."
Melody quickly pulled out her camera as the woman smiled.
"Can I take your picture?"
"Only if you promise to show your love."
Melody smiled and took the old woman's photo. She even snapped a few as the woman began walking away to catch her flight.
She sat back down as the woman walked out of sight and stared at the scarf.
'Maybe she's right. Maybe I have been running away all these years,' she thought.
'Maybe it is time for me to stop.'
She quickly pulled her laptop towards her and began checking her emails. She had been staying in regular contact with Esther over the passed few months. Every now and then she would even get an email from Avi but for some reason she could never reply to him. Fate had brought her here. Fate had sent that woman to speak with her. To give her this gift. Fate had sent Avi into her life right when she needed him the most. It was time to stop ignoring it. Time to stop running.
She quickly wrote Avi a short reply.

'Avi. You won't understand this yet but one day soon, I hope you do. Fate has given me another sign that I must obey.'