Terminal

9. The Closer I Get To You

November 9th 

Dear Journal, 

I had met someone new; her name is Charlotte Holden. She is a fellow teacher at the school I started teaching at this year. She is so beautiful, brown skin, and beautiful chocolate eyes. We chaperone the fall dance together, and I found out we are both big music buffs. I really like her a lot spending my lunches and free periods talking about everything under the sun.

We came to create a beautiful friendship, a friendship I ruined by showing up on her doorstep with a bouquet of roses to ask her out. Only for her to answer the door with regret. She informed me she has a boyfriend; one she was about to go meet for a date. My heart broke that night, I thought it was the worst pain I could feel.

I lied; it was watching her boyfriend show up to our school with a flash mob singing her favorite song as he proposed to her. Everyone else gets to have love in their life, whereas I am just the bumbling friend in the back. The one who is secretly pining for the girl in the spotlight.

Liz is throwing a New Years Eve Party this year. She is begging me to come, and although I hate to come to this party yet again single. I promise her I will support her and come. She said the new year has something promising for me she just feels it. However, I think she is just trying to keep my hopes up, so I won't be grumpy at her party....

Too late.... I swear off love for the new year, it hurts to never feel it, even if it meant just once....

Present Day

Sariah's Point of View:

"Alright now pass me that bag of flour and we can get breakfast really started." Katherine says to me as we are in the kitchen preparing breakfast for her family. Michael fell back to sleep after his moringa powder smoothie. 

"Katherine I really could have made breakfast while you were resting up, I think your son will be very upset with me." I say as she was on her cane stirring up batter for freshly made pancakes. 

"My son will get over it, if he gets on you than you tell me, and I will straighten him out, okay? Besides I am fine, and I always make breakfast for my family." Katherine says and I admire her at work.

"Well, if you don't mind me saying this but I see where he gets his stubborn side from." I say chuckling. 

"Oh, honey I wish that was so, but my son gets that stubbornness all from his late father my husband Joseph." Katherine says as she had a twinkle in her eye.

"If you don't mind me asking, what was he like? I hope I am not overstepping but after losing my own parents I enjoy learning about other people...That's weird right?" I say a bit embarrassed. 

"Not at all, it means your heart wants to live on through other's experiences. It's the first coping mechanism in grieving, connecting with other people makes you feel alive instead of numb. I get it honey, well, Joe was a larger-than-life kind of man. He had some parts of him that were not perfect and unfortunately the kids saw that side often times than not. But he loved very deeply, and he always supported his family. Do you want to see a picture of him?" She asked me and I nod enjoying my company with Katherine.

"Walter, can you finish this for me, and can you help him, Teresa?" Katherine says as she shows me to the Livingroom. She pulls out a photo album titled Jackson and flips to a page that she seems to know by heart. 

"This is him, holding Michael at the piano in Gary... His friends came over for band practice." She says showing me a black and white photo of a young tot Michael with his father and they both are smiling.