ADAM AND SKY

She could hear herself panting, her lungs getting more and more contrived. She could feel time ticking like a bomb at the back of her mind.

She doesn’t know where she’s going but her feet are adamant in running. She takes a turn, and her adrenaline starts rushing. Soon, she reaches an empty bridge that no one crosses unless needed.

Below it is chaotic running waters that will surely rip your body off if you carelessly fall.

A man stood on top of the bridge’s deck, his head lifted on the glooming sky and his lips mumbling words only Charlie could hear. How that happened is beyond her.

Then her feet halted, just a few steps away from where he is.

She treads the bridge slowly, hoping that he won’t panic the moment he sees her.

She now feels the ghost’s presence with her.

“Please… help him. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“What’s his name?” she whispers, still looking at the man looming at the edge.

“Adam.”

She nods, moving closer towards him.

“Adam?”

Adam slowly opens his eyes and looks down on her.

“Adam, I’d... I’d like to talk to you. Perhaps you can come down?”

“Who are you?” he whispers with a glint of fear in his voice.

“I’m Charlie. I’m a friend of…”

“Sky, my name’s Sky.” The ghost beside her whispered again.

“Sky. I’m Sky’s friend. You know him, right?” she swears she heard her voice trembling, scared of what will happen if she fails to convince him to come down and talk with her.

Adam turns his eyes back into the heavens and disregarded what she said.

“Adam, please. Sky, he’s here you know. And I don’t know how I can explain to you how I am able to hear him and see him. But he’s here.”

“He’s no longer here!” his voice elevated, yet the sorrow and pain were obvious.

“He’s here! And he asked me for help. I’m sorry if I didn’t heed his call for my help as soon as I can. But… but he is scared Adam. He’s scared that you would be making the wrong decision and he doesn’t want that.”

“What good is life if I don’t get to be with him anymore? If I don’t get to wake up beside him every day anymore? He’s all I have.”

“That’s not true. Tell him it’s not true.” Sky intervenes.

“Sky says it’s not true that he’s the only one you have.”

Adam turns to Charlie, his brows arched.

“Who are you?”

“Charlie. I’m Charlie. And I, can help you. Please, just give me a chance and I will do everything I can to help you.”

His tired eyes shed some tears. Slowly, he sits of the edge and cried out loud. He started shouting Sky’s name out in the open and cried all over again.

He looks tired and defeated. He started to go down and laid on the marbled bridge.

Charlie did the same. She was now looking at him, with another side of her face planted against the bridge’s floors.

“I’m sorry about all the pain, Adam.”

“It isn’t your fault.”

“I know, but sometimes, it’s what you would want to hear. The apology of someone even when they were not the ones at fault. Maybe because, in our subconscious, we want someone to be responsible of the things that has happened to us. Most especially when we know we can’t live with the pain. So, I’m saying it now. I’m sorry.”

He once again crumbled and cried.

She allowed him to cry it out. They laid there for a very long time, that soon the clouds started to get gloomy.

Rain may come and visit.

Soon enough, he got up and sat in front of Charlie, while she too did the same.

“How do you know Sky?” he started.

“I met him one day in this farmer’s market. He said he needed my help.”

“But he’s dead...” the words lingered for a long time.

“I know. And as much as I’d like to explain it myself, I don’t know how to. I just see him. He told me about you and until today, I didn’t realize that you’re so much sorrow now and that you needed my help. Both of you do.”

“So, you mean... you can see him?”

Charlie nodded. And somehow, her confirmation brought a sudden smile in his face.

“He looks old now.” Sky whispers.

“Sky said you look old.”

He cried but this time with gladness. He seemed overwhelmed but didn’t mind. Charlie realized that perhaps when you are in grief, you really do believe in everything.

It is so easy to say that she’s lying or that she’s deceiving him. But Adam chose to believe her. He clings to the hope that she provided him right at that moment.

“I don’t know exactly how this works, but I am going to try and do something here. I just need you to be patient with me, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you need.”

“Please don’t get back up there.”

“I promise I won’t.”

Charlie turned to the other side, where she knows Sky is.

“I have no clue how I can do this. But, for one, can you tell me your heart’s greatest desire? Your greatest wish?”

Sky looks at Adam and with yearning eyes, responded to her, “I only wish to say goodbye to him one last time and kiss him even when it would take all of my breath away.”

Charlie closed her eyes and prayed that she would know how to make his wish come true.

Her mind fell on a great oblivion. Then suddenly, she is caught in a big dark place. From there, flashes of memories started to appear.

They were memories of Sky. Memories ever since his birth until the day he died.

She could see all of them so clearly. Each one plucked like they were petals of roses.

This time, it was her that felt overwhelmed.

Is she making someone’s wish come true now?

Then, involuntarily, she chooses the memory of the last morning he woke up with Adam. The memory shows how they were fighting before he would take his leave.

Then, she plucks it and formed it into a red pill. Then, she swallows it and the next things she hears were the words she has no idea what they meant.

“Tahqiq.”

Along with it, her eyes opened.

She’s welcomed with the sight of Adam and Sky now hugging each other.

He can see him now. And all she could hear were their bawls. She stood up and walked a bit further from them as they both stood up and hugged each other.

She chose a place where she could still see them, slightly hear them.

“I miss you so much.” Adam’s voice trembled, yet he doesn’t stop himself from talking, knowing that it would be the last time he will see the love of his life.

“I miss you too. I’m sorry. I didn’t even get to tell you how much I love you.”

Then, Adam cups his face and gave him the hardest kiss he could even imagine. It seemed endless, that the soonest they parted their lips, their took sharp breaths in.

Charlie saw how much love they have for each other.

“Looks beautiful doesn’t it.”

She turns around and find Alvah in her usual red dress.

“How are you here?”

“I heard him too.” She looks at the two lovers now holding each other’s hand as they started walking towards the other end of the bridge.

“How much time do they have?” she asked.

“Not much.”

“Will I know when it’s already time?”

“You will.”

Alvah started walking towards the bridge and stopped on the spot where she and Adam just laid together.

“I took a memory. And I didn’t even know if I was doing it right. I plucked it out of him and… ate it.”

Alvah gave out a meek smile.

“You weren’t kidding.”

“I wasn’t.”

“But that was important to him.”

Alvah started walking once again, this time, treading the road that Adam and Sky took.

“It is. But sometimes, there are memories that people choose to just block away. Those are the memories that mattered yet in a bigger picture, they don’t make an impact. It could be a misunderstanding, a silly conversation, a mistake that one took while they were not their selves. Memories that we could hold. This wish in particular is different. For he is willing to trade just about everything. He has nothing to lose.”

Charlie continues to follow Alvah, walking on the same pace that she is in.

“Will it always be the same?”

“No. Nothing will ever be the same as one. All wishes and desires are unique. Like every human living in this world, desires and wishes would vary. They are never the same.”

The sky has already cleared somehow. Not too far from them was Adam and Sky happily talking to each other as though no space nor time has passed between them. Not even death.