Until we meet again. nosleep

I was a weird kid growing up. I had a hard time making friends because I wasn’t like the other kids. They liked sports or playing barbies and I didn’t like either. I loved to learn about the weird an unknown. One of my favourite books growing up was a huge collection of tales called, “Strange Stories and Amazing Facts” I read all about UFO abductions, ghosts, witches, and chilling tales of people escaping danger. The other kids thought I was dark and creepy. For the most part, I was ok with this, but sometimes I got lonely and wished for a friend.

It was the summer if my 12th year. It was the early 90’s. Grunge was king, Friday nights were in front of the tv watching TGIF, clear pepsi was stocked in the fridge. My parents worked full time and this was the first year they trusted me home alone. I spent most of my days sleeping until 10, watching reruns of “Are You Afraid of the Dark? Every day at lunch I would make a grilled cheese sandwich, the only thing my mom allowed me to make on the stove and grab a pack of gushers. In the afternoon I would wander around out small town. I lived in a very old town. It was founded in the early 1700’s. There were homes with stone foundations and widow’s walks on the roof facing the lake.

Most of the kids my age would leave the town in the summer to go away to camp or vacation with their family. Normally this wouldn’t bug me. I was already an outsider. I wore mostly black and just recently discovered the band Bauhaus. I would blare that dark, gloomy music on my Walkman while I rode my bike around town. The younger kids called me a witch. I would just cackle at them and carry on. By mid July I was bored. My parents had a vacation planned in August before school started back up but that was over a month away. I decided one day I would hop on my bike and ride through the old part of town. The homes were either run down or elderly people who refused to go in a home lived in. It was a quiet area that had an awesome hill to speed down on.

I don’t know what happened, maybe I was going too fast, maybe I didn’t see the pothole, maybe I wasn’t paying attention but I hit that pothole hard and went flying off my bike. I landed hard and my Walkman flew off. It was in almost slow motion as it hit the ground and shattered into pieces. Before I could reach it a garbage truck flew down the road and crushed the thing into a million pieces. My poor Bauhaus tape destroyed.

I scooted over to the curb and brushed of my banged up knees and began to cry. Behind me I heard a soft voice say, “Are you OK?” I turned around and behind me was a girl about my age. She wore a faded white sundress, her skin was pale, almost translucent, her hair was raven black and pin straight. She had beautiful dark eyes that seemed too big for her face.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine, thanks but I can’t say that my Walkman is ok.”

The girl looked at me blankly with a confused look ok her face. Almost as if she had never heard that word before.

“I’m Clara, do you want to come inside and wash off your knees?”

Not thinking and hot from the mid day sun, I accepted. I opened the large black gate and followed Clara inside her house. It was a very old house. I always thought that it was empty but the inside was well kept. A little old fashioned, I didn’t see a television and the refrigerator looked more like the icebox my grandma had in her garage but it was nice and it felt familiar.

Clara sat me down on the couch and came back with a damp cloth.

“Oh, thanks. I guess the cut was worse than I thought.” I cleaned up my knees and handed the cloth back to Clara. “I’m Emily by the way. I live over on Pinewood.” Clara gave me another blank look so I tried to fill the void with more conversation. “How long have you lived here?” Clara looked around the house and said, “Oh a while, my mom is a housekeeper in Wilson and my dad works at an office in the city. It’s just me now, it’s been quite lonely.”

I smiled, I knew what she meant. Clara invited me to visit for the afternoon and it turned out we had a lot in common. We both liked the strange and unusual. We both disliked the sun, and we both loved grilled cheese. Hours went by and before I knew it, I had to leave for dinner. “This was great! I am so excited to meet someone like me, it can get lonely in this town! Hey, you want to come over tomorrow and listen to music? I have a great collection! My mom gave me her record player and all of her Fleetwood Mac albums. They say Stevie Nicks is a witch!” Clara looked at me with a sad look on he face. “I would love to, but I can’t leave the house. I promised my mom and dad. You can come here if you like tomorrow.”

I was just so excited to meet a new friend that I agreed. The next day I rode my bike down to Clara’s house with my mom’s portable record player in my basket and a backpack full of records. Clara and I would spend hours listening to music, sharing creepy stories, and laughing. We became quick friends and soon Clara was all I could talk about to my parents. My parents, busy with work were just happy for me to finally have a friend.

The days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into the end of summer. I told Clara about my family vacation. She looked sad but I promised her that I would visit her the day I got back. We spent the last day before my vacation making each other friendship bracelets. When I left, I gave her a big hug and she whispered in my ear, “Thank you for being my friend, until we meet again.”

The vacation went by pretty quickly. We spent most of the time at the cape along the ocean. My mom and dad parked their chairs on the beach and spent most of the time napping, exhausted from their busy work schedules. I collected beach glass and planned to bring some back for Clara.

When I got back, as promised I hopped on my bike to Clara’s house. When I got to her house it looked very different. It looked like her parents renovated while I was gone. The dull siding was painted a cheerful yellow, new window and a new roof. Her family was busy! I knocked on the door and a woman with soft brown hair greeted me. “Oh, hi! You must be Clara’s mom! I’m Emily. I met Clara back in July and I’ve been visiting her but last week I was on vacation. It’s nice to meet you, the house looks great, is Clara around? I got her a present from the beach.”

The woman looked confused. She looked at me like I was a weird kid harassing her. “I’m sorry sweetie, but there is no little girl named Clara that lives here. My great grandmother’s name is Clara and I bought the house off of her a couple of years ago so I could take care of her. You must have the wrong house.” I was so confused, this was Clara’s house. I spent so much time there, I knew the shape of the windows, the metal gate, the wrapping porch. “I...don’t understand. This is her house. I know it. Inside there is a weird fridge and a big red couch.”

The woman said she was sorry and went to shut the door on me when I heard a soft, “Wait, that’s my Emily.”

At the top of the stairs was a very old woman. She had snow white hair, wore a bright white sun dress, and had dark eyes that were too big for her face. It was Clara, only she was elderly.

I gasped a soft yelp and tried to back away, “wait, Emily, please don’t go. I’ve waited so long to see you again.”

The woman at the door let me in and gave me a soft knowing smile. As if she had heard of me before and it all made sense to her. “Clara is 12 years old. This can’t be. I was only gone for a week. Where is Clara? Is this one of her weird jokes?” The elderly woman laughed and slowly walked down their stairs. When she reached me she held out her wrist and there was the friendship bracelet I made her only very old and almost fallen apart. “How?” I asked with tears rolling down my face.

“I wished for you. I was a weird kid who never fit in, my parents were always working to keep our house and the other girls were not allowed to come to my house because my mom was at work. I was so lonely and I wished for you and then one day I heard a bang and you were out front. You were weird too and we were almost like kindred spirits. I invited you back and you came every day. You brought that weird music and would talk about things I didn’t understand. Like what was a scrunchie? I loved the weird things you shared but then you said you were going on vacation and you never came back. You said you lived on Pinewood and I walked over there but all I could find was farm land and a gas station. I missed you so much. I mourned the loss of our friendship. My parents thought you were made up. The kids at school made fun of me because they thought I lied about having a friend. I grew up, went to college, became a writer, found love and had a daughter, Emily and she had a daughter, Clara Emily and she had a daughter, Emma. I always wished you would come back to me and you did. You are here, we are together again.”

I looked into the eyes of the frail old woman and I knew she spoke the truth. How we found each other through time seemed impossible. But here she was and my heart knew that it was meant to be. I hugged her tight and we cried. We found each other again.

Over the next year I would visit Clara after school. We would listen to music, share stories and laugh. Clara passed away on the one year anniversary of our meeting. She died peacefully and told her great granddaughter, Emma that she has made peace. Her last words were, "Until we meet again."

And then she was gone. I missed her deeply. Sometimes I would visit Emma but it wasn’t the same and she had he own life. I grew up and had my own family. I have a little girl named Clara, she has dark hair and big Brown eyes. She loves Fleetwood Mac and Grilled cheese. I always had faith we would meet again.

Submitted May 21, 2017 at 09:44AM by starlaluna http://ift.tt/2qGJY3g nosleep