Once Upon A Memory

The open road lay before them. They had no choice but to continue. As they looked behind, they saw, not only a mere road that they had travelled, but also the memories from their past. Looking back, they saw themselves as children, playing in the rain, eating popsicles in the summer, singing humorous songs, running around the fields, moving gracefully like the wind. They saw it all. 

This was the road of their life, making them feel stuck between wanting to move on and not being able to move on. They knew that they had to move forward. No U-turn could turn them back to the people they once were. 

Looking at the open road, the memory of them carving their names in an old Banyan tree, promising each other of a 'forever' flashed by. Perhaps, 'forever' was a word meant for memories, not people. Looking at them, nobody would have realized that they are best friends, or rather were best friends. Once best friends. But today, strangers with not only memories, but also shared experiences, a common past, and an ephemeral forever. How contradictory! 

That was the life of Emma and Remi. They remembered the moments where they would talk about their infinite love. Perhaps, infinity was too small. Or perhaps, they were not just meant to be. Perhaps, they were better as an 'Once Upon A Time' than as an 'Happily Ever After'. Perhaps, life isn't like a fairytale. 

Both girls sat thinking in their respective rooms, as their memories flashed right before their eyes. Their eyes red and their vision blurry, as they looked through their memory book, it is an unfortunate fact that, their distance would always keep them separated, though their hearts were intertwined. 

Just an year ago, things were so different between them. Nobody knows what happened to them, including them. Unspoken words, unsaid feelings... Both of them would give the world to just smile at the other, and embrace warmly, even if it's for one last time. 

As Emma sat thinking of Remi, while sitting on her bed, her phone rang. Her vision was too blurry that she was unable to check the caller. She picked the call, and whispered a "Hello?" weakly. "Emma?", called out the voice. 

A voice so recognizable. 

A voice she could never forget. 

A voice that she had heard after an year. 

A voice that belonged to the person she longed to hug. 

Remi. 

Remi's voice had an unbounding effect on Emma. The moment her voice reached her ears, her heart started to beat faster than ever. Nervousness? Excitement? Surprise? One could never tell. 

"Emma?", called out the voice again. 

Emma had always hated her name. But Remi's voice. 

Remi calling out her name. 

That was the first time she fell in love with her name. 

Remi made her name sound so pleasant. 

Like a melody. 

Like it was worth listening to. 

Like she was worth listening to. 

She never thought she would hear that voice ever again. 

"Emma, I've texted you an address. Can you make it to that place soon?', asked Remi.

"Of course", said Emma, unable to speak, her voice ever so shaky. 

An hour later, the cameras of a building scanned a car entering it. A girl, in her mid twenties stepped out, dressed in a classy white, her heels tapping softly on the ground. 

Emma. 

She entered the building, and asked for Remi to an elderly woman. As the elderly woman answered, there was a silence so deafening that made her faint. Silence has noise that loudness never would. 

A few months later, Emma stood on the open road again, facing backwards, at the meadow. 

"We are at the same place, but yet, so far away. I wish I'd called you sooner. Gave you that smile and that hug, just like you gave me my world. It hurts, Remi. It hurts when I see myself standing five feet above the ground when I have to see laying five feet below the ground, buried. You fought hard. Fly high!", she said, her voice shaking, as she was unable to speak further. 

Emma turned back, facing the other side. 

The open road lay before her. She had no choice but to continue.