The Last 7 Days of My Life: Nils Stylus Diary

Bella's Time Part 1

In the river I forgot my legs were on fire. The immediate cold that hit my skin when I first submerged brought me some sweet relief.

Now, out of the water, my trousers dripping wet added to my weight and my legs felt like noodles having been in the water for so long. I fell to the ground as soon as I hit land.

Yet the pain still was not that bad. Maybe it was the adrenaline from all the playing. Joel had already mocked us for playing in the water, then called us slow pokes, for he was already on his trek back home.

Rowan and I would not catch up to him, so we took our time getting home.

I stuck my hand out toward the sun. My wrist turned, so that I was looking at my palm. I made a fist with my hand and stuck my little finger out at the horizon. I scrunched my face up, squinting my eyes.

Rowan laughed, then asked, "What are you doing?" I turned and watch Rowan's curious face. It was good to be with my friend. It was just the pain of my feet that was the problem now.

I glanced back at the sun and said with a snappy nod of my head. "I'm checking the time."

His eyebrows went up, then he made a whimsical shift in his face. "Huh? Silly. All you have to do is look at where the sun is in the sky."

I nodded, then paused before asking, "I-"

He cut me off. "You've never done this before?"

I pulled my lips into a disconcerting frown. "Nope"

He came closer. "Okay, you tell me what time it is when you look at the sun and I'll tell you what time it is using my method." He motions as he passed me. I followed his pacing steps.

"Okay, bet."

Rowan turned around and gave me a quizzical look. "Bet what?"

"If you lose, you have to walk home without trousers," I replied.

Rowan said with raucous laugher consuming his shaking frame. "I don't even know why you swam in them. They'll need to be dried, anyway."

I immediately got defensive, but decided to not let it show. I laughed nervously. "How would we even know who won?"

Rowan quiets down. The smile on his face rested below the wading strands of hair on his head. He shrugged. "You've got a point."

I guessed that was fine. My eyes took in the power of the sun above us. It provided so much for us and here we were, simple men living under its glory.

Food grew under it and did we. It nurtured us, and something felt right about that. I wonder if it will be shining on me brightly on my last day. "Okay, what time have you got?" I asked.

"Well, it looks close to sundown, about two hours left?"

"Good guess." I started counting my fingers from horizon to sun to see how many fingers made it to the sun. "I'd say we better get home fast; we only have about an hour of sunlight left"

"What? No way!" Rowan shouted. I laughed and shrugged. Honestly, I was just messing with him. I had no clue what time it actually was, and I was not in the mood to be rushing anywhere.

I said, "Come on, I'll walk you home. I have to stop off at Bella, anyway."

"Won't your sister get angry that you didn't come right away?" He asked.

"No, I let her know I was going to be hanging out with my friends today."

"Lucky!" Then he realized. "Oh. Sorry." And his sadness became apparent. Damn, it always creeps in at inopportune times like this. I turned to him. His eyes looked like they were welling up.

"Hey, don't cry." I said, as I noticed his tears start to fall.

His cries started to come out in between gasps of air. "It's... just... that...I'm never going...to see... you again."

I also started to cry, but I held back most of it. "I know."

We hugged. "I really tried to forget about it today, you know?" he said. I knew, and I understood that fact. Still, there was still time left in the day to do a lot of great things and I was determined to get those stuff done.

I nodded. "Me too."

"And I actually managed to for a bit."

"Me too." I leaned off him and stared into his face. "Having fun with you helped me forget for a moment. Thank you for that."

"I'll miss you Nils. I love you like my brother." Rowan saying that hits me a little differently than I expected. Especially since I never grew up with a brother, I had a sister.

Growing up, my only male influence was Joel, and it had only been recently that we have been hanging with each other.

It had been really intriguing to me how as soon as things came to this; we have grown together. Rowan was a friend, and I had to admit, I took my relationship with him for granted.

The same went for Joel. Now things were different. I had a new outlook on life and it was warmer and with a greater purpose.

"Me too." I only seemed to be able to get out 'Me too', because I was feeling everything he was feeling and I didn't know what else to say.

Getting into anything else right now would be way too emotional and terrifying. I needed all my strength. I was committed to feeling good.

Pretty soon we were at Rowan's house. He looked at me as if he didn't know what to say. "Thanks for being such an amazing friend," I said. Great, I had to go and say something weird, yet it felt good to insert between the dead silence that rested here.

He smiled and said, "You're the amazing one."

A smile crept up my heated face. "Aw shucks. Thanks."

I waved to his parents and headed off to see Bella. With no one around to see me and no distractions, I started to feel the ache in my legs. It wasn't as bad as this morning, but the pain was slowly increasing. I knew that with too much exertion, it would soon be on fire again.