Dandelion Wishes

Dandelion Wishes

            “I never knew you went to Julie’s homecoming party.” Harley stated, leaning her head on her best friend’s shoulder.

            “I never even knew I love her.” Samuel planted a pleasant grin on his face, staring at the scene in front of them.

            They were sitting on a field of dandelions, and Samuel was wrapping an old maroon blanket around Harley. It was the same blanket they would use during sleepovers ever since they were young. They thought it was large in size. Though the time they realized they finally grew up, the blanket only reached their knees.

            “I miss those times.”

            “What times?” Samuel questioned, turning his head towards Harley, who was now setting her eyes on the calm, moving waters before them.

            “When you tell bedtime stories before I sleep.” she answered, “Remember the Island of the Blue Dolphins? It was your favorite. You would share it to me in a million times and I never get tired of your story.”

 

            Days after they first met, Sam began spending his nights on Harley’s. Although they live one kilometer apart, they never let any Friday pass without having their traditional sleepovers. Once the lamp is off and they had themselves under the covers, Harley would open the flashlight and starts by saying, “What do you want to be like someday?”

            He always dreamt to be a doctor, owning the first medical center of St. Burrsborough, and would somehow find a cure for his best friend’s condition. But the odds are hopeless as he never became a doctor, or any kind of physician he can possibly be. Mr. Miller wanted him to be the heir of his business. Soon, he ended up claiming the throne of his father in Miller Advertising Company.

            “What about you?” he spoke softly under the covers, it was his time to hold the flashlight.

            Harley smiled warmly at him, getting frivolous of her unrealistic thoughts. “I’ve always wanted to be a princess and marry my Prince Charming, so we could live together in a palace. Then, we would have plenty of kids and we will live happily ever after!”

            Samuel only gave her a genial smile. He knew that she’s just going to end up hurting herself, seeing that her cancer had rose to stage two. He desired that her Prince Charming would be someone like him instead - or him exactly.

 

            Harley took a dandelion from the patch of grass beside her. She observed it for a while as the wind went gushing over them. She never knew dandelions were made for wishes until the day when they first went up to this very hill by the lake to pick dandelions. She puffed away their tiny parachutes, spreading far and wide in the wind, and closed her eyes slowly, mumbling her desires to herself.

            Sam looked at her in bewilderment, searching for clues what she was muttering. “What did you wish for?”

            Harley opened her eyes and looked down to her hands, though not without leaving him a quick glance.

            “That this wouldn’t be my final day.”

            He looked everywhere but Harley. “It would have been better if you stayed at the hospital.”

 

            It was three-thirty in the afternoon when Harley called Samuel. She was still in her room at St. Burrborough mini hospital, lying on the same bed she’s been on in almost her whole life. She never liked living in a white, dull building where the only sounds you can hear were rolls of wheelchairs and beeps of machines. It was always the same process everyday - wake up from her slumber, eat satisfying meals, have friendly visitors, watch television, and go back to sleep again. She gets sicker all the time when thoughts of death float above her head. And from the moment she remembered that today was going to be her last, she gave her best friend a ring and told him to come over.

            Minutes after, Sam was already opening the door, showing a sincere smile as he walked over her bed. She found Harley writing on a yellow pad on her breakfast table. It was long and filled with phrases that only she can understand, he described. “What’s up?”

            Harley put away the desk from her lap and sat straight. She was looking for words to avoid the topic about the paper she was scribbling on. Then, almost suddenly, she remembered. “Can you please get me out of here?” she whined, notching her eyebrows to form a sad expression.

            “No.” was Sam’s only answer. He was stern and strict. Even though he knows that Harley is dying to get outside to see what it looks like again, he couldn’t allow her best friend to risk her assurance in the hospital.

            “Please.” she begged.

            Sam sat on the edge of the mattress and leaned over to Harley as he placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulders. “Harley, you’re safer here. I don’t know what might happen if I take you outside of these protective walls.”

            “I’m more than safe when you’re around.”

            He knew what Harley wanted. She wanted to feel alive again, like what she’d been before. Riding bikes. Skipping stones. Singing in sopranos. Catching fireflies. Dancing insanely ‘till the sun rises - all of those things she can do when she was six, years before her destined tragedy.

            If she could only run away from her cancer, she would.

            “Let’s run away, Sam. I want to get out of this cage.”

            At that point, he sighed in defeat, more at himself actually. “Fine.”

            Samuel didn’t long to see her disappointed. And it almost breaks his heart seeing her friend lying on a white bed in a dreary room, full of uninteresting things. The only thing entertaining would not be the television, but the brown sparrow landing every twelve noon on the brink of her window.

            “You’ll never be alone again. I’ll take care of you.”

            Harley knows more than herself that she’ll be more secure around those sturdy white walls, but she couldn’t be more protected around Sam’s sweet fondles.

 

            He bent over to reach his toes and grabbed the dandelion seed head that was swaying by his foot. He gently blew the top of the young flower as he closed her eyes in a calm manner.

            “What did you wish for?” This time, it was Harley’s turn to wonder, and she wrapped the coat closer to her body.

            “To go back in time.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Doesn’t life make it hard when you fight for something that is too impossible to fight for?” Sam couldn’t bear the thoughts of her sacrifices in each second of her life, trying to breathe in and breathe out. And he didn’t know that her last handful of oxygen would be given this day. Harley must tell him about it, but she just can’t.

            “Yes. Truly, it is difficult.” her face went serious as she was looking back to the days where no person helped her stand up for cancer, but him alone. “But do you know what makes it easier?”

            Sam became curious. She was thinking it was a guy she met in high school �" maybe someone like Tyler or Jake �" whom he knows had a long time crush on Harley. Sam knows that his friend is a beautiful living thing. He couldn’t help but recognize her as one stunning goddess, inhumanely beautiful �" blonde, tanned skin, and blue eyes. Harley never believed his words. But he never stopped telling her that she is more than perfect, despite of anything worse.

            “You, Sam. You make my days more than simple. You make everything beyond extraordinary.” Harley smiled wholeheartedly. She wished something better; she wished that they wouldn’t only be just friends. But somehow, Sam couldn’t take the hint.

            Well, that’s what Harley knows. She didn’t know that Sam loved her more than what she thinks of. And that’s when they both reminded themselves of their past.

 

            Tick. Tock.

            Tick. Tock.

            “Deride. To ridicule with cruelty, to laugh at and make fun of.”

            Tick. Tock.

            Tick. Tock.

            “Lampoon. To mock or satirize.”

            Tick. Tock.

            Tick. Tock.

            “Pillory. To subject someone to merciless public ridicule or abuse.”

            Tick. Tock.

            Tick. Tock.

            C’mon, only a few seconds before-

            The bell rings aloud over the whole school. It felt louder to Harley than any other days of her years.

            “Summer!” the entire room yelled, blending with the noise of the other classes as they went outside.

            Mr. Shepard sighed in frustration, fixing his documents neatly on the front table. It was wooden, and the tap of papers were echoing as he straightened the edges. “And those are the words to intimidate a teacher. Then you’ll end up getting yourself in the detention room.” he mumbles to himself in sarcasm.

            Harley hurriedly laid her English book inside her satchel. She never used backpacks, like what her classmates would do. It wasn’t her kind of thing. She’s different, maybe more than she could ever think of.

            “Bye, Mr. Shepard! Have a great summer!” She was almost leaving the room as she greeted her teacher politely.

            Turning his head to her, he said, “You, too, O’Dell. Have fun!”

            Harley was the same odd person as she passed by the crowded halls of Summit Court Academy. That girl you see walking in the darkest shadows of your school, avoiding people and unnecessary chats �" that girl was Harley.

            And you didn’t know she was suffering from cancer.

            She stepped down the stairs and tried to shake the pain off as pesky teenagers bumped her shoulders on their way up. She passed the doors to the exit, and marched briskly away from the army of students. Some were disappointed that they would be spending two months apart from their friends. Some were feeling giddy of that night’s party on 21 Oak Street.

            Harley �" she was both. Disappointed, that she will be staying with her gabby Aunt Jane, who only cares for her backyard garden more than her goddaughter. Giddy, that she will be painting the walls of her house for her pleasure and enjoyment.

            But not until she saw a figure sitting on a bench by the sidewalk on her way home to her godmother. He was sitting quietly, rather alone and unaccompanied. Harley felt the urge to approach him. She felt that the guy was also as different as her.

            And that they were holding the same solitude.

            She couldn’t take a peek at what he looked like. When he heard Harley’s footsteps nearing him, he decisively looked up and just by sending each other warm, favorable smiles, Sam already knew that they would keep a strong bond of friendship.

            “Hello, I’m Harley.”

 

            There they are, sitting by the lake and enduring their final day being together, around the lots of dandelion seed heads, wishing them off, here and there.

            Harley rested her head on Sam’s lap and they both watch the orange sun as it sets down to its nest. He was playing with her hair, putting full grown, yellow dandelions on her golden strands.

            The waves of the lake were peaceful and still. Whispers of the wind breezing through the trees sent comforting sounds to their ears. And chirps of birds flying west sang them lullabies. Harley felt free, as if running towards the arms of Mother Nature.

            That afternoon wasn’t absolutely complete for the two of them. In this degree, Sam began his storytelling as he smoothly brushed Harley’s blonde hair with his fingers. It always started with a person finding friendship �" may it be in a neighborhood, in a castle, in a party, in a city, or wherever. Harley would guess it right when she feels certain that the girl will meet her confidante. “She met him in an alley way, sitting on the cemented ground. All by himself, he was drinking liquor, burning his burdens in his throat as he gulped down the alcohol. But he was lucky that a nice girl came near him, somehow sharing the same problem. And so there, they made a spark of friendship . . .”

            In the middle of the story, she interrupted, making Sam pause for a while and lending his ears to what Harley was about to say.

            “I love you, Sam.”

            She knew that he would take care of her. She knew that she would be gone in any second, and she wouldn’t want to miss hearing Sam’s reply.

            “And I love you more.”

            Harley knows that it will be his answer. She just wanted him to say it again, for her to catch the final words she will ever have from the face of the earth.

            She closed her eyes bit by bit, right after she felt a soft, gentle kiss on her lips.

            That’s when she realized that the seed head she had blown years ago became a wish come true. She hoped that she would die on someone’s caring arms.

            She never knew it was his.