The Dead Children's Playground

I was ten when my family moved to Alabama. It was my very first summer in Huntsville and as much as my young eyes adored viewing new wonders of this world, I was saddened by the lonesome that I was carrying from the past few months. Moving to a new place was an incredibly unfamiliar experience for me, as was leaving all my friends and familiar faces behind. This upheaval had a grave impact on my mind, making me reluctant to make new acquaintances.

This went on for a few months until my parents, concerned about my isolation, decided it would be beneficial for me to socialize with other kids at a neighborhood park and so every other day I went to this park, adjacent to a cemetery, on maple hills… our go-to neighborhood park for our brief stay in that city.

That day, a dark overcast one as much as I remember, was my first desperate attempt to meet new people, which I believed was the only way to escape my ordeal. Coming from a place with terribly hot tropical days, the sun never bothered me yet as I looked around, I saw only quite a few little groupings of children, all engrossed in their own fancies of all the fantastic worlds that their minds could work up. A sense of hesitancy took over me and my eyes desperately searched for a lone kid like me. Looking around, my eyes fell on a girl, about my age, and dressed in profoundly classical white floral dress topped with a white hair band.

I strolled forward, her back turned towards me as she crouched, fiddling with something on the ground. I gently tapped on her shoulder to get her attention and made my best effort to pass a smile… I was taught to do so as a gesture of politeness. She turned towards me, her skin more pale than her attire.

"Hi, my name is Eric. What's yours?" I asked, looking intently into her startled eyes.

“Liah” She replied, her face remaining a stoic artifact, yet her hands seemed steadfast in caressing the squirrel that rested upon her hand, moving ever so slightly in her state of apparent bliss.

Though not very fond of animals myself, I offered to play with her since I had nothing better to do at the moment. Not quite a talker, from what I could make out, for she simply nodded her assent.

I sat beside her, quietly observing the squirrel as it slowly stirred and woke up from its slumber, wagging its tail with an apparent sense of contentment.

“It likes you” I uttered mindlessly. In that instant, for the very first time, did I saw her smile.

“My mother tells me they can sense what’s in our hearts”

“Then your heart is pure” I blurted out, remembering my teacher saying it to a kid once. It had made him happy, and I hoped it would do the same for Liah, who seemed gloomy, perhaps owing to her lonesome.

She looked at me with those mesmerizing oceanic eyes that lit up with delight. Her lips twisted into a smile. For a moment, we tended to other animals in blessed silence, discovering a stark similarity between our dispositions.

“Where do you live?” I asked, silently wishing she be a neighbor- at least then I would have a friend around. But her face fell upon hearing that question. She didn’t answer, I didn’t ask again.

***

The next day I returned to the park. As was the custom my mom went ahead to walk around with other moms whilst the children engaged amongst themselves. I refrained from telling my mom about my new friend lest she overwhelmed her by her innumerable questions.

When I sat beside Liah, I noticed her face was paler than usual, her eyes showing signs of weariness.

“Are you fine? Should I call someone?” I asked, touching her forehead which burnt with fever.

“I’ll be alright” she answered her voice a bit husky.

As time passed, her condition worsened and I made my mind to fetch some help and thus when I saw my mom at a distance, I got up and ran to her. I explained the whole ordeal, which had her greatly concerned, and rushed towards Liah. But by the time I reached, she was gone. I looked around in vain, asked the other kids but to no avail. Nobody, to my disbelief, knew anything of any such girl.

I ran through the park frantically, even checking the cemetery, but to no avail. Amidst unanswered questions, I decided to return home.

***

The evening passed, and as the sun began to set, strange inquisitiveness than concern took over my mind as I struggled to comprehend her sudden disappearance. Being a young mind in an younger body still, I struggled to put my curiosity at rest and my mind to sleep but as soon as I did, I found myself in the same park, in my dreams of course, talking to that same girl- Liah. I was meaning to ask all the questions that revolved around my head but before I could do so, she got up and started running beckoning me to follow. Giggling, we both ran through the twisting trails that rose and fell until we reached one gravestone amidst innumerable others. She sat down beside it and with a voice marked by strange grief masked by enthusiasm, pointed towards the gravestone…

“This is my home” She turned towards me with the same pair of oceanic eyes, though this instance a single tear escaped and trickled down her cheek.

I woke up greatly disturbed. I felt lightheaded, my forehead burning, and my throat parched. That morning, I came down with a severe case of influenza.

For the next few days my body burnt, legs trembled with each step and back ached so profusely that I was forced to become bed-ridden. I remember little of the next few days except a recurrent dream where I found myself, every night, in a strange place that looked like a hospital but unlike any I had ever seen…

"Every night I would find myself in a bed, amidst a bedlam of incessant coughing and groaning, in a place that loosely resembled a hospital but unlike any I had ever seen. I could see men and women clad in white gown and heavy mask, hesitantly and hastily tending to the patients… mostly old and young. I would myself writhe in pain, cry and groan but had no-one to comfort me, no one to tend me to. For a few days this repeated every night until one day it became unbearable for I had become too weak and too lonely to endure any more of this… slowly but surely my eyes closed and I made peace with the circumstances."

I woke up, my shirt drenched in sweat, breathing heavily. I touched my forehead which seemed fine, my legs no longer trembled and body no longer ached… it seemed I had finally recovered. But I wasn't entirely happy. Curiosity had taken hold of me, and I longed to visit the park again to validate my doubts.

It took incessant pleadings before finally my mom agreed to again take me to the park (The act of skipping meals may have contributed to that). As my mom went out for a brisk walk, I looked around for the exact same spot to which I followed Liah in that nightmare of a dream… partly expecting to see her there.

As soon as I reached that place however my smile disappeared and my heart sunk for where there should have been a young girl giggling, there remained just a gravestone upon which was inscribed, though barely decipherable, her name with the years 1910-1919 inscribed.

I quietly took out my handkerchief and cleaned the inscription. Perhaps this was her home- forgotten and unvisited. The next day, I brought her some flowers...

-The End