No single tear is for you 2
The wind banged against the windows, likely ruining hundreds of curtains meant to protect the warmth inside. It made a soft rustling sound. Eighteen meters away, my lookalike and I met at the final farewell the beginning that could have been.
He had the same birthmark as me on his chin, where he nervously tapped just like I do.
“Let me help you! Reach for my hand!” he pleaded.
I screamed, “No!” and tried to swim away again.
He called after me, “Where are you heading, my lady?”
Now he bent down even further. While I stood still, he sat down in the boat and held onto the edge.
I said, “You’re a stranger anyway. Why do you care?”
He tried to stand up from the ground, but his body moved uncontrollably wanting to jump in after me but also wanting to respect my decision.
Every time his hands slipped from the grip, he repeated, “I won’t let you go without reassurance.”
The salt water must not have pierced his nose as much as it did mine, because now he held my gaze not the distant, still blue, but a calm green. Like green leaves bring back oxygen, he brought me back to life.
With a quiet gesture, he offered his hat my hat that sat on his head from the beginning. The one I had just lost last week to a sea bird.
The seabirds entrusted it to him.
He threw it gently over me while his face twitched whenever I said behind the hat, “No one has the same taste in hats like me.”
He whispered, “Since then, I’ve been protecting it.”
His hard swallow betrayed him he was crying.
I gripped the edges of the hat tightly, so much so that I wanted to pull it off. I couldn’t face his lovely eyes after my stubborn refusal.
My ears kept bringing back his shaky voice as he stayed, witnessing the rivers carrying me away.
Copyright © Adna Demiri | Year Posted 2025
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