To Make You Smile

To See The Lights With You

Chapter 8

To See The Lights With You

I asked Dad about bringing Alisa to a floating lantern party which will be held by the townspeople to celebrate the mayor's birthday. He agreed and said he wants to come with us as well. Three days passed and finally, the night for the party arrived. Once again she dressed into the clothes Dad bought for her. "So, what are we gonna see?" she asked innocently, skipping while walking. Dad answered this question for her. "Floating lights," he answered. I sighed. "Paper bags with metal holders where they put the fire thingy that heats it up and makes it float," I added. She skipped about like a child. "Hmm... I see. So they're like personal stars."

Me and dad stared at her simultaneously. Maybe it's her imagination talking again. "Explain."

"You see, stars are like that. They're high up in the sky, and if you look at them carefully for hours, it seems like they're floating around the horizon when it's the horizon that actually moves. These 'lanterns' are like stars because they float in the night sky, and when I say 'personal', it's because we get to hold them before setting them into the air." Dad chuckled in amusement. "What a wild interpretation."

I found myself bewitched yet again by the beauty of her rhetorical words. "That's just... deep." We arrived at the park where most of the people were already in, talking and sharing the punch and the food hosted at the huge table in the center. Dad came across some colleagues and left us to take care of ourselves. Alisa was way too excited to taste the punch and literally dragged me through the crowd just to get to it. "Ooh, it's red. Why?"

"Dunno what they put in there. Strawberry juice is probably the cause for the color. Could be anything, though. Strawberry, cranberry, grapes and whatnot."

She took a cup and got herself a serving. "Does it taste good?"

"Depends."

Alisa took a sip, then gave me a sour look on her face. She set the cup down on the table and brushed her lips with her sleeves. I felt myself laughing at her reaction. "Yuck, it tastes like bitter wine." She saw me laughing at her, so she began pushing me off. "Hey, don't laugh at me like that!" She was smiling, too. I fended off her weak arms and had fun teasing her about it. "You looked like you tasted vinegar. Hahaha..."

She kept shoving me and hitting me softly with her palms. "Okay, okay, I get it. Though I think I should be happy that you're laughing because of me."

My laughter finally cooled down and I messed her hair, ruining her ponytail. She let it down and fixed it, removing the gartered string she used to tie it and slid it onto her wrist. "Yeah, because of your face. You were like..." I trailed off and imitated her. She started laughing, too. "Fine, I did look like I took a sip of vinegar."

People were finally handing out the lighted paper bags for the final event. Alisa took two for herself and she said, "The more, the merrier!" Then we released them into the air, watching them float high up into the sky and lapse into the lake after a few long minutes. She was at the edge of the shallow part of the lake, picking up the lanterns that had fell and lifting them up into the air to make them float again. I sat beside her and helped her with this perfectly simple yet innocent task. "You know, Louis, I've never had so much fun until I met you."

I picked up a sinking lantern and tossed it back to the air before answering. "I've never laughed that hard until I met you. Be privileged."

She sighed and shook her head with a smile. She lifted back two lanterns, dipped her fingers in the water and turned to me. She whisked the water from her fingers right into my face, causing me to brush them away. "Hey!" I said. I'm not allowed to whisk some to her, though, because it was chilly and she might get a cold. People who have cancer and have undergone chemotherapy have low immune systems, thus making them easy targets of other sicknesses. She laughed again and leaned her head on my shoulder, lifting back a stray lantern that fell beside her. "You're a really nice person, Louis."

"Say that to my classmates and they'll disagree with you."

"It's because they haven't seen this side of you yet," she remarked, poking a finger onto my cheek twice. I waved her hand away. "Why is that?"

"A pessimist always builds high walls around himself, so only people who know how to persevere can get into the wall and know how soft he is inside."

"Like your cheeks, haha." She started poking my cheeks again in a teasing manner that I found it hard to brush her away like a pesky mosquito. She nuzzled my shoulder softly and closed her eyes. "All I want now is to be outside that room and live normally. I mean, some people with cancer can live normally out here, too."

She can't survive for long when she chooses to live outside her room. She'll just be confined into another room again. But still, the will in her voice pawed at me like an outdoor kitten wanting to be brought inside. "What stage are you in, anyway?"

"It isn't very high, I'm just at two. Your dad says so. But he told me that my immune system isn't that capable anymore."

So she still has a chance. "You have a chance," I mumbled, my head falling gently against hers. She ignored the lanterns that fell at her arms length, letting them sink into the water.

"I love you."

"Huh?" I asked, but I found her asleep on my shoulder, her head nuzzling into my neck. I sighed. There was no other way to talk to her, now that she's asleep. But did she mean it? I guess I'll just have to ask her tomorrow.