africa ☾ h.s.

EPILOGUE

I never saw Susan or Harry again.

Niall came to visit me, once. He hugged me and we said nothing for a long time, we just sat underneath the Tree outside Hertaych where it had all started. It was almost as if the whole world was holding it's breath to hear what Niall would say.

Finally, he spoke. "She got married," he concluded. Of course I knew who he was talking about. Susan.

"She married a farmer. In Manitoba." He blew air out through his teeth. "Harry was invited to the wedding."

"Did he go?"

"No."

Silence reigned once more. I shifted so that my back was against Niall's, and we stared up at the stars, watching them as if they could provide an answer.

But they didn't.

"I thought it might pull through," Niall admitted finally. "I thought maybe she'd write him or get his number or do something. Anything."

"But that was the point, wasn't it?" I responded smoothly. "The point of their romance wasn't to last. They had to have known that."

Niall nodded, sighing. "It's difficult, watching him. He doesn't go out anymore, not for anything. I saw him for Christmas last year and he didn't smile. Once." The stars seemed to fade at Niall's words. "When he got the invite to her wedding, I was there. He looked like he'd been slapped." Niall spat out the words, angry at Susan but angry at Harry, as well. "They were so young. So stupid and blindlessly in love."

"But that's the upside to it," I countered. "They were so in love it didn't matter that they only had five days, or that they fell in love underneath a dirty, dusty tree."

Niall was silent, but I knew he agreed. Finally I said slowly, "It didn't even matter it happened in Africa."

He never said anything else. He left the next morning on a plane ride to Ireland, and I later learned Harry met him at the airport. I got a letter from somewhere called Holmes Chapel, Cheshire the next weekend, and there was nothing in it but a wedding invitation to Susan Perry & Michael Shannon's wedding in May. It was a nice invite, one that deserved a second glance. But I only looked at it once, and then I threw it away. Because the picture was nice, and he looked like a decent, well-brought-up man who didn't wear headbands.

But Susan looked different, Susan looked tired.

Because Susan wasn't smiling.

T H E E N D .

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endings make me sad.

make sure to read the author's note!