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
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