"L" : The black tulip

 

My name is Sarah and I live in an apartment in Chicago. I’m 17 years old, small and thin. I have long blond hair and brown eyes. My mother and father had gone to work and my brother had gone swimming. It was Wednesday, 3 o’clock pm, I was sitting on my couch when I received a message from Helena, she invited me to the movies. When I arrived in the street, without paying attention to the traffic, I crossed. I saw Helena open her mouth at the precise moment when I was hit by a vehicle. As in slow motion I got up from the ground and suddenly I felt my back hit by something hard with a violence that cut my breath. I heard cries, noises, someone was calling me, someone was touching me, I saw blurred things and then nothing.

I opened my eyes, lying in the dark cold. Then, I saw a spot of white light shining in front of me. I saw a figure coming towards me. It was a woman dressed in a long dress, black as the night, her long curly red hair falling in cascades on her back. Her big pale blue eyes seemed to enlighten her face. She fixed me and then smiled : « Hello Sarah, my name is Drina. I am the queen of Limbes, the world which is situated between the light and the dark. If you see this world, it is that you are between life and death, as you have had an accident : a car hit you and you fell in a coma. » She also explained then that I did not need to eat or sleep anymore, but that time passed faster. A day in this world was equal to a month in the world of light.

I looked at her, I had tears in my eyes.

- « It is impossible, it must be a dream, nothing at all is real » I screamed

She squeezed me hard, and murmured in my ear with a soft voice : « I promise Sarah », she added.

I was wandering in the Limbes when I heard a familiar voice, it was my mother : « Sarah my dear daughter, your father and I love you with all our heart », then nothing more. I sat down. I let the tears flow on my cheeks then I looked at the big clock that indicated the years, the months, the days, the hours, the minutes and the seconds that go by in the world of light.

Everybody has his own clock. For me, it indicated 4 months, 28 days, 11 hours, 6 minutes and 30 seconds. It had been 4 days in the world of Limbes that I had been wandering.

A voice made me jump, it was the voice of Helena : « Hi Sarah, it is Helena, I've brought you a new bouquet of perfumed red tulips as you like them. All the students of the high school wrote you a card, they miss you a lot, mainly Kevin. They offered you a teddy bear.

I was very glad that all my friends thought about me and I was very pleased that Kevin was interested in me. Kevin ! The boy I was in love with since my entry into high school. I had the impression that I was with them.

I looked again at the clock. It indicated 5 months, 3 days, 14 hours, 26 minutes and 8 seconds. A voice attracted me, the voice of my little brother warmed my heart and also moved me a lot : « Sarah, I am very sad, there is a great emptiness in the house. Mam' cries each night and Dad doesn't know what to do for her. I am waiting for you to go to the swimming pool and drink the best milk shake in the city. »

The clock indicated 9 months. Someone talked to me, it was Kevin : « Sarah it has been a month since your birthday. My hope has not been realised, it will maybe never be realised. But before, I would like you to know something…. »

My heart accelerates.

« ….When I saw you for the first time at high school I fell in love with you. I am offering you my drawing book, I want you to have it, if you go forever I will be very bad. »

Kevin put the book on my blanket. I wanted to take his hand but I took only emptiness. Kevin bent towards me and I felt a light pressure on my mouth then nothing more.

My clock indicated 1 year, 1 month and 10 hours. A year that I was in the coma, a year that I had had my accident, a year that I had not opened my eyes and that I had not seen all those I loved.

Drina appeared before me.

- « Sarah do you remember my promise ?

- Yes

- You believed in it, you wanted it.

- You helped me not to lose footing, I am ready, I want to live! »

And a wave of heat invaded me, I smelt the perfume of tulip. Their voices fought in the darkness and left a path, a fault that was bringing me back to reality.

Now I was in the light. Drina, always near me, was smiling at me. Smiling, smiling......Helena was smiling… My brother was smiling and my parents were also smiling at me. Their hands were touching my face, their arms were holding me and squeezing me. They kissed me, tears of joy flowing on their face, shining with life and happiness.

Then they went away leaving me alone, and I found a card on a leather book : « for Sarah, from Kevin » I opened it and I looked at myself, marvellously well-drawn on each page, with a black tulip in my hair, in my hands or all around the paper, up to the two last pages there was my empty desk, an only black tulip on it, and me lying on my hospital bed holding one in my hands.

I went back to high school and I went into the higher level class. I saw Kevin again, who approached me : « Sarah ! » he squeezed me in his arms. We stayed together up to the end of high school and even beyond. I know now that love is the strongest feeling that could exist and that it will vanquish the darkness no matter what.

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