Maple

Ch23

Alexander   

I knew I was making a scene, but I didn't care. Grandma was crying so hard as she held me, her shoulders shaking. My eyes were blurred with tears as I screamed at Maple's coffin. A boy with black hair who looked about Maple's age came up to me. He was crying. Grandma turned to see him.

"Hello, you must be David" she said, her voice quavering. He nodded. He held me by the shoulders and I stopped screaming. He sat me back down on my wheel chair.

"Do you know when Maple was happiest?" he asked. I shrugged. "In the time I knew her, she was happiest the moment she found out you had woken up."

I sniffed.

"She was also left behind, Alex, and she suffered a lot. But she kept her head high and battled through the day, for you" he smiled, a nostalgic, watery smile.

"Me?" I asked. He nodded.

"You were her pillar. She lost everything, but she still had you. When people became unsure if you'd wakeup, she kept on believing. Never did she doubt you. She kept waiting. What do you think she'll say if she saw you now?"

I shrugged.

"She'd want you to be strong, just like she was. She'd want you to remember that you are never alone, that you still have your grandmother and your uncle. And I'm sure she'd want you to remember that she'd always be with you, and so will your parents."

I wiped my tears, grabbed a handful of dirt, and tossed it into the grave.

"Good bye, Maple" I said, "Thank you for always waiting for me."

David

Christmas was around the corner and we had all decided to celebrate normally, even if we had to plaster the smiles on our faces. Max and his parents will be celebrating Christmas with their family, but me and Mom will be celebrating it with Meggs' family. Mom and I were designing our mini tree when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" I said, running over to the door and throwing it open. To my surprise, Alex and his grandmother were on the other side. I hadn't seen them since the service and I couldn't help but smile a small, sad smile.

"Hello" I said.

"Hi David" Alex mumbled.

"Hello, sorry for coming out of the blue like this" his grandmother added.

"It's fine, why don't you come in?"

I took them over to the living room. Mother looked surprised to see them, but quickly recovered and greeted them.

"I'll go get you some juice or something" Mom said before rushing to the kitchen.

"We're going to drive home for Christmas, so we really don't have much time" Al's grandmother said.

"We just came to show you this" Alex informed, pulling out a notebook from his back pack. "We found it in Maple's room while we were looking through her things. I think you should see it." He flipped it to a specific page before handing it over.

"She wrote a diary to give to Alex when he woke up, so he'd know what he missed" his grandmother added. "You should read this part. She wrote about you."

I looked down at Maple's familiar, neat handwriting and my heart clenched. I began reading.

Dear Alex,

David came over today. Over to my apartment! I haven't had any one over, let alone a guy! He came to tell me that he took my advice and talked with his mother. They seemed to be having some problems, I'm glad they fixed them before it's too late. Sometimes, I wonder what I would say to Mother if I met her one more time. Would I tell her I was sorry? Ask for forgiveness? I wonder if she would forgive me.

He also found out that grandma and I were not on good terms and told me to take my own advice and talk it out with her. Would you forgive me if I did? I do love her, but I'm still too angry to forgive her.

Enough of that, David is very nice…I'm sure you'll like him if you met him. He was the leader of a gang before he transferred schools, but he hardly acts the part. I hope that one day the two of you will become friends.

You know, without him, I would still be alone, thinking that everything would be ok as long as I kept my head down. But now I know that ignoring the problem wouldn't solve it. I wonder how I can ever thank him for everything he had done. I bought him a Christmas present, I know it’s a little early, but, what the heck?

It's a CD recording with all my best piano pieces. I know that I have given up piano out of guilt, but it'd be nice to think that someone could enjoy them, or at least listen to them. Do you think he'll like it? I really hope he does.

I've been thinking, what should I get you for Christmas? This is the second Christmas since you've been in a coma. In the beginning, I would never have thought that it would last this long.

I hope that one day you'll find it in your heart to forgive me. I'll be waiting here for you to wake up.

Your older sister,

Maple

XXX

I wiped my tears away as Alex reached into his bag and pulled out the CD.

"Merry Christmas from Maple" he said with a sad smile. I took the case and thanked him. Mother came back with juice and cookies. I slipped the CD out of its case and into the CD player. We sat in the living room, eating, drinking and chatting, while listening to Maple play the piano.

Good bye Maple.