The Note

It's past five in the morning.

The parched paper barely filled with scribbles was crumpled by his hand - dragging it to the end of the table. He tries to make a new note, writing down the first three words he wanted to say. . . "I miss you." He is struggling to hold back his tears, sentence after sentence, he breaks every breath with a sob. In his mind, endless "what if's" tortured him, but he knew that the decision he made that day was the worst one to regret for the rest of his life. All he could remember was the heartbreaking look on her face - that beautiful smile turning into a frown, eyes filled with tears, hands pressing tightly on his chest, lips that softly whispered "I'm really, really sorry, please... let's start over again. I love you, very much... please, please stay. . . " 

After ending his note with heavy strokes, marking firmly the words "I LOVE YOU", he folds the paper into two. As he tried to stand, his strength shifted to his hands pressing on the wooden table where he did his writing. Casting his last breath of dismay, he took his car keys and rushed towards the door, wearing his gray bonnet while walking to his car.

It was almost six when he arrived in a garden-like place, with white pillars in four corners and cream-colored stones scattered in an array of flowers. The sky was still in blankets of gray with translucent blotches of sunshine. The cool breeze froze his tears.

She has been waiting for him. . . Like a goddess who owned the place, her braided hair gave of a bright gleam on her face, her beautiful silky white dress gracefully danced with the wind and her gold sandals brushed through the grass as she took steps towards him. Her heart was beating fast, and she wore the same smile she had the last time she saw him. How dearly she wanted to run towards him, but she contained herself and did not make another step. Instead, she made herself comfortable sitting, like a princess, on a bed of Zoysia grass flowers.

From a distance, she could see that he was holding a beautiful bouquet of pink carnation, red roses and white tulips.

The thrill she felt as he was nearing where she sat made her blush. She tried to hide her quiet giggling by looking down, when it seemed like he noticed. In a matter of seconds, her vision was parallel to his hands, holding the bouquet and a note inserted in between.

He was seated right in front of her finally, finally.

She tilted her head up, and gazed at his eyes filled with so much sadness. Before she could cup his cheeks, damped with tears, he puts the bouquet down and started kneeling, with his face on the ground, and fingers scraping through the grass that covered the soil. He barely wanted to read the note he made for he was breaking, really hard. As his cry shattered the silence of sunrise, he mumbled over and over - "I told you I would come back. . . I told you, I would. But I shouldn't have left you at all. I shouldn't."