A Dream by Mariia Skyrta

 “Hi darling!

Come in, don’t stand out there in the cold.”

Mom and dad pull her in and fold in their arms. They haven’t seen her for a long time – she had a busy semester at the college and only now, on Christmas eve, finally came back home. Jade studies medicine and wants to be a surgeon, so they know that it demands a lot of time and practice and don’t press too hard on her.

As soon as they sit at the table mom starts to ask a continuous flow of questions without giving Jade even a second for answering at least one of them.

“Did you get A for that exam you told me about or was that stubborn professor too exacting again? Why did the train take so long today, the last time you arrived an hour earlier? Oh, you must be very hungry”, mom finally stopped asking everything at once and pushed the meatloaf closer to Jade.

“I really am hungry. I spent two days and one sleepless night preparing for that exam, but I got A!” “Well, honey, you know that as you sow, so shall you reap. You deserved that.”, dad says. She never felt a lack of support from parents, they always knew how to encourage and motivate her.

The rest of the evening was spent in efforts to eat everything mom had cooked for the Christmas, which was probably impossible as they couldn’t even get to the cake. When they finally gave in, Jade told them everything they wanted to know and fulfilled her parent’s curiosity.

She got upstairs and slowly opened the door to her bedroom. She has lived there for sixteen years so as she came in she felt absolutely at home. Seems like parents didn’t touch anything here.

This place is full of memories: basketball winner cup, hand-made posters with rock bands and no end of polaroid photos. A lot of things to remember, but Jade was too tired after the long day to think about it now.

She took a shower, turned the light off and slipped under the blanket hoping to immediately fall asleep. However, the tiredness seems to have gone away. She thought about the time when she was still studying in school. Back then she used to write in her diary every day before going to sleep. Jade wondered, if it was still there, in the chest of her drawer.

Her diary was still here. Mom and dad could have found it and read everything. She thought, she should probably hide it better next time.

As she was thinking about the security of her thoughts and feelings written in the diary, something fell down to the floor. She picked it up and saw that it was a letter. Jade turned the lamp on and opened the envelope. There was a sheet of paper with curve handwriting and a photograph inside. The letter was short, only one paragraph.

“Hi Jade!

We are now in Porto, Portugal. It’s very beautiful here. I remember you said you have never seen the ocean – it’s a great place to see it for the first time. One day we will come here together and have the best time in our lives. Keep a photo with this view until then.

Love,

Emily”

The photo captured a cliff and a sunset in the ocean. It was really a beautiful view Jade wished she would see. She thought, it’s a pity, the trip that they planned would probably never happen.

At the time when she received this letter she and Emily were still best friends. They did everything together: went to school, played basketball, watched TV series. They shared everything and had no secrets from each other. When Emily found out her dad had been cheating on her mother they packed their things and ran away together. Although they were caught only a few hours later and put under the house arrest, Jade secretly got into Emily’s room through the window at night and tried to comfort her.

The trip to Portugal was supposed to be kind of a ransom for Emily for the pain caused by her parents’ divorce. Jade knew, it wasn’t a thing that one trip can fix, however beautiful the sunsets there are.

Time flew and, as it was their last year at school, final exams preparation overwhelmed their thoughts. Soon the graduation passed and it was time to leave for college.

Emily entered the Art academy in Seattle – she was good at drawing, while Jade’s college was in Denver. That’s a big distance, but they didn’t think it would change their friendship. However, it did.

At first they still talked every day, just like they used to when they had lived just two houses apart. Then little by little they both got involved in college student lives, full of new people and experiences. They talked more seldom every month and now, two years later they barely had any common topics to talk about, except the school times.

Jade wondered, if Emily came home for Christmas too. For some reason, she thought that if they only went out again, like they had used to do in the old good times, perhaps, they could found again what they lost. She would tell Emily about everything that happened to her this year and they would be the closest friends to each other again. Maybe, they could go to Porto on winter holidays, as they planned. They are old enough to go by themselves now.

She felt guilty for not calling and not texting Emily for a long time, but then she remembered the Emily didn’t call or text her either. Apparently, she didn’t want to. And if so, Jade didn’t want to be intrusive. How could this friendship last if no one cares about it?

Jade put the letter and the diary back to the drawer, turned the light off and closed her eyes. That night she dreamt about a sunset in the ocean in Porto and a tear slowly ran down her cheek.

Good, that things turn out like they were supposed to at least in our dreams, in this beautiful imaginary world, where no one cheats and no friendships end.