FIXING BROKEN PROMISES
by Nobo13
Copyright 2012 Nobo13
*****
Fixing Broken Promises
The hot summer air cooked me on the bus. There wasn’t an AC unit on board, an old model that’s probably only used still out in rural areas like this. It was a further hour or so on that baking bus before I reached my stop.
The field of rainbows streamed passed as I remembered the times I ran through them as a boy. The three of us thought we would be together forever but I suppose it never was meant to be.
I got off at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. To my left was the setting sun, to my right was the freezing rainbows, and in front of me was the gate of passing.
All three of us were born long after the gates were built but it was in our childhood that they started to shut them down. Now only two worlds are connected, but that will be gone too soon. This was the last time we could meet.
I walked up the long stairs of the mountains, I never liked them, it was like a marathon to walk these. The merging of the worlds had created some ridiculous places, but now that only two were merged, the scenery had gotten dull. It felt like my world had lost its soul. This was the only ridiculous place left.
I had rested at the half way point. There was an inn here that I stayed for the night. The couple who ran the place chatted with me for about two hours or so. They asked if I was visiting the graveyard. It wasn’t a popular place, it was out of the way, hard to get to, and soon it would disappear with the shutting of the last gates. But still, she loved it here.
The couple explained to me that their son was there, he’d married a girl from another world, and was the very first to disappear when the gates closed. The couple knew he was alive still, somewhere, but still they had a grave for him. I didn’t argue with them, after all, we had one as well for her.
We talked less about other worlds, and more on our own. It was times like these I realised how lonely my world was, and soon I would be alone.
I started off at first light, the mist was purple and red, and the skies changed from glass to steel. I reached the summit as I stared across a valley of graves. I gently found my way towards her grave as butterflies of every colour flew by.
“Yo” my friend Har called
“When did you get here?” I replied
“Just a moment ago, did you stay at the inn?”
“Yeah, I’m not as strong as you”
“Can’t be helped, you’re only human”
I shrugged as I stood by him. Here it was, the grave of someone we loved. The grave of someone still alive somewhere. This would be the last time I would stand here, the last time the three of us can be together.
“We never did get an answer did we?” he laughed
“Are you still hung up on that?” I frowned
He stared at me before I nodded
“No,” I sighed “Not that it matters anymore”
“If it’s any consolation, I think she would have picked you”
“Come on, we both know she liked you”
“No, no, it was obvious she liked you more”
“Ha? Then why did she run away with just you?”
“That’s because you were on holiday at your uncles!”
“Yeah well…”
And that’s how we spent our days as children. Wondering who she loved the most. Who she would pick. Who of us, she would spend the rest of her life with.
We made a promise, the three of us, to always be together. And now all we can do, is try to fix our broken promise, the three of us.
*****
I can remember it like yesterday. She arrived before the whole class and introduced herself. I never knew it then, but I had fallen in love. And worst yet, I would find out my best friend, Har, had also fallen for her.
It wasn’t strange to have new students in the middle of the school year, we had kids from twenty other worlds come and go. But she was the first mermaid I had seen. There weren’t many here due to the heat and lack of water. There was a legend about a magic spring on the mountain but I’m sure it wasn’t real.
I can remember that fated meeting, it was at the end of the day when all the kids were waiting for their parents to come and pick them up.
I waved goodbye to Har quite early on, his parents were of the wind race, so they were always there to pick him up. He was the fastest kid in class but I suppose he envied those of us that got to stay behind in class.
My parents were mere humans. Even in a car, they arrived twenty minutes late. As an eight year old, I already was mature enough to look after myself. My parents were always busy so I learnt it naturally. And it seemed like it was the same with her.
It was half an hour after school had finished. Our teacher phoned home but no one answered. I said to her that they were probably in traffic. Soon it was just me and her.
I was too scared to say anything. I sat at my desk and she sat at hers. It was another five minutes until she suddenly came over to me.
“Have you got a drink?” she said in a quiet voice
“Excuse me?” I sweated
“Drink? I need… a drink…”
She didn’t seem too well, her face was pale and she looked like her head was spinning. It was then I remembered she was a mermaid. I got her to sit down and went out to get the teacher. We arrived with a tub of water and a cold drink. We placed her feet in the tub and got her to drink slowly.
As she sat recovering, I couldn’t help but stare. She was beautiful, but I never knew it then. It wasn’t long until she was back to normal.
“Well, that certainly was lucky you spotted that” the teacher praised me
I nodded and watched as she left
“Th-thanks” the girl said
“That’s ok, you should keep your fluids up, it’s ok to drink while at school”
“Sorry, I was just scared the teacher would tell me off…”
“You’ve got sea anaemia right? You’re allowed to then”
“O-ok… you sure know a lot about mermaids”
“Ah… I want to be a doctor see, so I have to know how to treat everyone”
“A doctor? Really? You must be smart then!”
“Not really, I just know a bit”
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“My name? West”
“I’m Pond! Hey, what else do you know?”
That was how we first met. My best friend was so jealous of me, but it wasn’t like he didn’t spent time alone with her as well. And as time went on, the three of us grew inseparable.
We spent our summers together catching and cataloguing bugs. There were all sorts of creepy crawlies now the worlds had merged. It was something I loved, going together with Pond and finding new bugs. Har hated them but he came along all the same. Wherever Pond went, the two of us followed.
In those summers, we would camp out on this very mountain and sleep under the stars. We used to make fun of Har because his parents would check on him everyday. They would appear close by then disappear, coming and going as fast as the wind. Har was embarrassed, having his parents come check on him when he’s supposed to be camping alone.
And it was in one of those summers that we first argued. Pond had asked if Har could do the same. He nodded and disappeared. He appeared again with a flower that came from the foot of the mountain. Pond was really impressed.
And it was that that scared me. “So? That’s not that great.” I think I said something like that. I fought for the first time and it was me that lost. It was also then, that we both knew we were in love with the same girl. Somehow I thought that she would never be impressed by anything I did. It wasn’t like I could breathe under water, be as fast as the wind, I was ju
st a human. I could never make her smile like that.
That summer ended early, and rainy days came in from other worlds. It would have turned to winter but Pond had called us out.
I didn’t know she had called Har as well, and by the looks of it, he didn’t know I was coming either. If it wasn’t for Pond, we probably wouldn’t have made up.
She was clueless about our love. She simply shouted at the both of us and demanded to know why we were fighting. I didn’t know what came over me, but I told her. Har was shocked at first, but he also confessed.
And here we were, two friends fighting, and the girl they were fighting over. It was also now, that she turned bright red and went completely silent. It was like that for a while. Complete and utter silence. I was never in a more awkward situation in my whole life.
After ten minutes of the two of us staring at her back, she nodded before dashing off at full speed. I guess she didn’t know what to do. The two of us gasped as we chased after her. She wasn’t that fast so we stopped her in her tracks.
“Wait!” she fretted, “Give me, give me five years!”
“What?” Har frowned
“Yeah, in five years! In five years I’ll pick one of you”
“One of us?” I stared at Har
“But until then, you have to be friends! And no more fighting!”
“O-ok?” Har turned to me
“I can do that” I nodded
“Good,” she grabbed our hands and held them tightly, “So promise me, the three of us will always be together”
“I promise” we both said
It was then that we saw her crying. She told both of us that we were idiots, and that we made her upset. She lectured us for a good hour, but we both simply laughed back then.
I didn’t know what it was, but I never wanted to see her cry again. I think Har was thinking the same thing. Since then we never argued and we never fought in front of her. And like that, we waited for five years for our reply.
*****
We stood before the grave for what seemed like ages.
“Should we go?” Har asked
“No, let’s wait a bit longer, this is the last time for me” I smiled
“Right, we still don’t know whose world it’ll end up in”
“Remember those days we caught bugs”
“Yeah, now that I think about it, I hated bugs!”
“Right, well… we don’t have coloured butterflies like those. Our rainbows aren’t frozen”
“I see…”
“What, I can built another grave… one for you as well”
“What?” Har laughed, “… I see”
“We can’t break our promise can we?”
“No… no we can’t”
“Always together…”
“The three of us…”
Those five years were probably my favourite time alive. We were always together as we grew up. When we entered high school, we got put in different classes. She threw a fit, but it couldn’t be helped. I think we were the only three who didn’t make any friends in our own classes. Still, we didn’t need to make any new friends, the ones we had already were all we needed.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but that was the start of it all. The start when our promise would be broken.
“I said just let it go!” I shouted
“But it’s not your fault! You can’t stop!” Har shouted back
We were fighting in the corridor. Pond came by and stared at us.
“You two aren’t fighting now are you?” she frowned
“Pond!” Har was relived to see her, “Talk to him, he’s thinking of giving up!”
“Giving up?”
“I SAID LET IT GO!”
The two stared at me in silence. I ran away after that. I hadn’t seen their faces like that in such a long time. I guess it was my fault. I wanted to be a doctor, but at the start of the year, I was put in a bottom set for science.
I probably wasn’t stupid, but I didn’t know much about physics and chemistry. It wouldn’t be until the final two years until I could pick biology, but by then, I would be so behind that I wouldn’t be able to catch up.
I was a logical kid, I knew that bottom sets never catch up to top sets, so I thought it was all over. During those times, kid’s dreams were broken and they turned into adults.
Even still, I think I ran all the way home while crying that day. Pond and Har came by later. They told me not to give up and whatnot, but I didn’t listen at the time.
I sort of shut myself off from the world. I didn’t go to school for about a week. I wished I did now, maybe then I would have learnt a lot sooner.
There were talks about shutting down the gates, closing off the parallel worlds. We were born in that age, so we didn’t know anything better. We were born in that merged world so it wasn’t going back to normal for us, it was losing something, something incredibly dear. When I returned to school, that’s when I learnt.
I asked about some students. They usually sat around me in class but they were gone. That’s when the teacher told me “they’ve gone back.” I didn’t understand.
Even Har and Pond didn’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t like it scared them or worried them, they didn’t even think about it. They chatted as usual and went about like normal. At first I was worried, but I followed in their footsteps. It wasn’t until the end of the year before we lost her.
*****
“Do you remember that time?” I asked
“What?” Har frowned
“You know? When we chased after her?”
“Ah,” he laughed, “I had to carry you. You know, I may be fast, but I’m not strong you know”
“Yeah, but you still carried me all the way… thanks”
“What? It’s nothing…”
It was just a normal day when it happened. That summer we went camping again on the mountain. Now that I think about it, I never should have told her. I regretted telling her.
That summer she wanted to do something different, she wanted to do something besides catching bugs. I suppose bug catching isn’t as fun when you’re a teenager. Har suggested climbing the mountain. That’s when I told them there was a magic spring there.
“Great!” she beamed, “That’s what we’ll do! We’ll race to the spring!”
“Why a race? Can’t we just go together?” I asked
“But that’s no fun…”
“I’d win anyway” Har shrugged
“No, you have to walk, like the two of us”
“What’s the point?”
“Well…,” and that’s when she said it, “It’s about time, how about I date the winner?”
The two of us were never more focused in our lives. We didn’t even ask what would happen if she won. The two of us just wanted to win no matter what.
We left in separate directions, with the simple instruction to start at sunrise. I sat alone in the field of rainbows before the sun came up.
I ran and ran. Even when I was tired, I ran. It was a long four hours of running and climbing. I had bruises and scratches all over my legs, but still I continued. It was like that until I made it. I did it! Har arrived twenty minutes later in despair.
I couldn’t help but gloat in his face. He didn’t like it at all, but I was surprised that he didn’t argue or say something. I stopped and told him she was probably joking.
We sat in silence for an hour before we started to talk. It was another hour before we joked about how long it took her. In the next hour, we were searching the mountains in fear. She wasn’t answering her phone, and it was now four hours since sunrise.
I kept praying to god that she was still asleep in the fields somewhere. I shouted and shouted for eons until my phone rang. Har had found her. As weak and as puny humans are, I ran down that mountain like a demon.
As much as we wanted to, me and Har couldn’t stay with her in hospital. I thought her parents would hate us, but they thanked us. The both of us cri
ed but they told us to cheer up. They thanked Har for running as far as he did. They thanked me for giving first aid. She hurt her head badly, there wasn’t anything I could really do, but still they thanked me. I never felt more pain in my life than now.
She was unconscious for the next few days, but when she awoke, we came straight away. I still remember Har appearing out of nowhere and carrying me to the hospital. It was as scary as riding a rocket, but I was glad he came to pick me up.
We walked into that room and almost cried. She simply smiled at the two of us as we hugged her tightly. We asked if she was ok and she nodded and laughed. We brought gifts and snacks, as she joked about the hospital food.
And then she asked who won the race. I stared at Har as he stared back hopelessly.
“Stupid!” I sighed, “No one found it, we went looking for you. It’s your own fault for falling”
“What?” she laughed, “That’s disappointing”
“Besides…,” I grabbed Har’s hand and hers, “It’s the three of us, together forever”
After we left, Har thanked me. We went and got take out and ate in the park. That was when I realised it was all over.
“Where’s the swings?” I asked
“Those? They were part of another world, didn’t you know?”
“But? The park, it’s nearly empty! Everything’s gone”
“Don’t worry about it, they just closed another gate is all”
“Right…”
It was at home, about two days later when I heard about it. I told Har but he didn’t believe me. We went to ask Pond about it but she was in tears.
“They’re going to close my gate…”
This was the last week we had with her, a whole week, so why did it go so fast?
We spend so little time with her, instead, me and Har just tried everyway of finding a way to stay with her. We tried getting a visa for her, but a mermaid with sea anaemia wouldn’t survive out of their world. We tried for visas for her world. I told my parents and they said ok. Har did the same, but his parents said no. We both applied anyway. We told Pond but I was surprised to see her upset.
“You know, that mountain,” she smiled, “It’s my favourite place. It’s present in all three of our worlds. In my world though, it’s a tiny island because the sea’s so high. But on it, there’s a spring I like, a magical spring that let’s you see into other worlds. Stay. A spirit of the wind and a human wouldn’t be able to live in my world. But promise me… the three of us will always be together”