Finally

Hey everyone! Photo here! Here is a short story I origonly wrote for a contest...but I'm deleting the contest page, so...thought I'd share the entry here:

I didn’t mind the cold wind that was beginning to nib at the bare skin below my knee caps. Instead I bent and studied the foot prints, slowly tracing them with my index finger. His print had left more than just an imprint on the soft muddy ground. I rose and followed the tracks, running my hand over the bark of the trees that I passed, while I placed my own prints in his. Our hide out had long ago been destroyed by the swampy weather, but that didn’t matter. We always met at least once a month. But after he left I had started coming at least once a day, already knowing he would never show up again.

In till this morning, when I rose and headed to my favorite place, found his foot prints. His prints.
Boots on my doorstep at 5 am, finger tips on my palm. All his. I sighed as the beautiful white flowers that he used to pick to put in my hair rose over the brown mud and proceeded to make a life. Despite the nasty weather, and the past of death they continued to try to get stronger and live. Why I couldn’t I do that? Why couldn’t I believe what was in front of me?

I jumped over a log that marked our spot. The little cave that we had built so long ago was no longer the same one we had started out with. In stead it was just the log. His boot prints had passed the log, but instead of stopping he had went on. Probably to the lake, I realize as I, myself, push on. His touch is everywhere. I can see his knife’s cut on the rose bush and the blackberries. His touch on the trees, the one where I climbed to the top and got stuck and he had to go get my father. On the rocks, where he threw them at me when we were 8. The spot where he had apologized when one hit me. I saw everything, the memories I had been trying to push away were flooding back, and he might not even be around anymore! If that was so, I think, than whose prints am I following? My imagination?

I skip around the lake bed when I spot him. He is sitting on his favorite rock. The one he always claimed in the summer. It was the only smooth rock, and in the summer he would let me sit on it, while he dove deep into the cool water. I didn’t move, instead I stared at him. Not believing my eyes. Even though I already knew they were right. “How have you been?” He says, rising to his feet. I realize then that he has gotten taller. So that’s what 2 years has done to him.

“Good.” I say. “And you?”
“Fine.”
“When did you get back?”
“Late last night.” He pauses. “When did you start coming out everyday?”
I no longer trust my voice, so I stand there, and hold back my tears.
He crosses over to me, and he is only a foot away. “When?” He asks.
“What does it matter?” I spit out. My voice cracks.
“I’ve been here too.” He looks up at the sky. “Only in my head.”
We are silent for the longest moment before I speak. “I started coming the day you left.” I’m staring at his boots.
“I know.”
“So what now? How long are you staying?” I look up at him, at his sparkling green eyes, and brown hair.
“Kallie, I plan to stay for a while.” His eyes search mine. “For as long as I can.”
“They don’t need you anymore?”
“No. They won’t need me for a very long time.” He looks up at the sky again. “Ya know, the day I left, I realized I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I realized when I saw your face through the window, you weren’t crying, but you weren’t smiling either.” He looks down at me and pushes a strand of hair away. “I realized that I didn’t want war or anything like that. I wanted you.”
For a moment I’m in that lake, I’m diving deep into the cool water, the refreshing truth, and I say one word. The word that tells us both that we are complete, the word that tells me that everything I have ever wanted has been right here. The word that binds us together forever. “Finally.”

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts :)