Barefoot

Part Eight

As soon as the words slip from her lips, tears fall from her eyes. "One night," she starts slowly, "One night, I broke down after he and his friends had left, and his wife pitied me. She knew what it was like, but she had fallen in love with the man he was when he wasn't drunk. She could hear my cries from her room in the attic and snuck me out. The next day was when I came here."

He hugs her tightly. "I won't let someone ever do that to you again, you hear me? No one will lay a finger against you again."

She smiles and hugs him back, brushing her tears away. "I had a little gold necklace," she murmurs. "It had three little heart on it and it belonged to my mother once upon a time. After I got away though, I lost it and I haven't been able to find it. I had it looped around my wrist as I was throwing stones into the creek, but when I hid in the trees, I noticed I didn't have it." She sniffles. "It was the last thing I had of my mother's. I wish I still had it."

Something clicked in his mind and he reaches over into his jacket pocket. He fishes around for a moment, then pulls it out. "This necklace?"

He can hear her sudden intake of breath as she sees it and he knows it's hers. "How did you find it?"

"It was with a group of pebbles at the bottom of the creek. I noticed it the other day when I met you." He moves her fawn-colored hair from her neck and does up the clasp for her.

She leans forward and presses her lips against his in a silent thank-you, and he can taste her salty tears on her lips, but there's something else there too.

It's her lightness, her happiness.

"How do you do that?" He asks.

"How do I do what?" Her tears have dried, leaving salty tracks on her cheeks, yet she smiles at him nonetheless.

"You always find a way to smile. How do you do that?"

"You have to focus on the positives in life. Even as dark and bleak as life can get sometimes, it's wonderful too."

He can't form any words. He pulls her tightly to him and she lays her head on his chest. "What's good about my situation?" He asks, unable to see anything good. Ever since that day, life has been black and white and sometimes grey, but it had lost its color.

"Well, the situation isn't good. I'm not going to deny that. But you came out stronger and as a person who knows true suffering."

"How is that good?"

"Because then you will appreciate the happy times even more." She smiles. "And if it didn't happen to you, or happen to me, we wouldn't be here right now. We can't change the past, but we can change the future."

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now," he murmurs, smiling at her.

She smiles back, her eyes radiating happiness once again. "Good. I wouldn't want to be either."

They lay on the grass, and she teaches him. She teaches him how to find the beauty of life once again. She talks to him about the birds and how the leaves dance in the breeze as the birds sing for them and the colors of life are becoming visible to his eyes again.

They watch the sun travel across the sky and before he knows it, she's fast asleep with his chest as the pillow. Dusk falls and the stars quickly follow, and for the first time in just over a year, he can see their beauty.

But nothing compares to the lovely flower lying next to him.