Ready To Let Go

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PART 3 

THE CANOPY

Lifting up into the skies
rise the trees and their crowns. 
Getting hit by harsh weather
they'll be knocked and pushed down. 

So why is it that most of the wildlife
in this canopy resides? 
Because here they grow resilient, 
and rejoice in the warmth of the sun.

17TH OF JULY


Samantha

The alarm rings and I get up straight away. I rub my eyes, and then I quickly do ten sit ups and stretch my arms a little. I’m still feeling a bit on edge, but I tell myself I’ve got a busy day ahead, and I can’t worry about any of it now. There’s just so much in my mind, that I think for one day, I deserve to turn it all off and just enjoy this city. The city where my family comes from.

So I head over to Em’s bed, and pull the covers.

“Come on, sleepy head, time to-”

Em’s bed is empty, just a mess of pillows under the blankets. My mind automatically goes back to survival mode, and runs through all of the worst case scenarios. 

Em is gone, gone forever. Maybe she was abducted, and now she’s lying dead on a dodgy alley. Or maybe she abandoned me. I look to the side, and see that all of her belongings are still there. Okay, she didn’t abandon me, she wouldn’t leave all her precious things behind. I try to think logically: Maybe she just got up early. But who am I kidding?! That’s not realistic at all! 

Before I can think about what I’m doing, I reach down to feel the sheets on her bed, and find that they’re cold. Oh my, she is so dead. She’s been abducted, probably got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and got kidnapped by a weird dude or something. No, stop it Sam, you can’t keep thinking like this. This most likely has a simple and logical explanation.

My hand is still resting on the bed as the door to the room opens and I jump up, hitting the back of my head against the top bunk.

“Damn it!”

I rub my head as I turn around, only to find a confused looking Em standing under the doorframe, her eyebrow raised.

“Um, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” She smiles weirdly. “What were you doing?” She asks, pointing at her bed and sounding as confused as I feel.

“Me? Um, nothing…” I say as I straighten up and step away from the bed. “Where were you?”

She stares at me for a moment before she answers.

“I woke up busting… so I went to the loo.”

I stay there for a moment, wondering why my mind sometimes overreacts in such weird ways. 

“Come on, hurry up, are you not gonna get changed?” She says after a moment of awkward silence. “We have a huge day ahead, and I’m really excited about it!” With that, Em smiles her everyday sweet smile, grabs some stuff from her bag and heads back out the door. “I’m gonna have a shower and fix my hair and make up, see you back here when I’m ready?”

Without waiting for an answer, Emma walks out of the door.

I do a little bit of stretching before getting changed into today’s outfit, a pair of thick black leggings with a red stripe on the side, a long sleeved burgundy top with a drawing of a panda bear on it, and a white knitted sweater. I leave my bag ready by the bed, and pop my winter jacket on top of it. Once I’m ready, I spray some perfume and sit on the bed. 

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