Happy Ending~Tod Belle

Happy Ending


I ran the lead of the pencil evenly around the edge of my design. My strokes were light at first, slowly getting darker and darker. I stepped back about a foot and examined the detail of the simple shape. Every inch of it had to be perfect. That’s what I told myself as I worked. If I could not make this one thing in my life perfect for her, I would have to just give up trying.
As I surveyed the wispy lines I had made on the wood, I noticed one of the edges was just a bit lopsided from the other side. I sighed. I gripped the pencil more firmly in my hand and knelt down beside the tree again. The whole time I was drawing on the sturdy trunk of the tree, I was remembering.
Before, the memories had trapped me. They had been something that took me from where I wanted to be and kept me there. I hadn’t wanted to remember her. I wanted to forget her. Now I could not get enough. I was constantly searching through my mind to locate something that would have even the smallest connection with Milly. I wanted to remember every detail.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of hard work and a persistent cramp in my hand, it looked perfect. It was not crooked in the least, nor was it in any way too big or too small. It would be the perfect size for the note I had written. I was certain of one other thing. If Milly was watching, she would love it.
I took my pocketknife out of my pocket and began to carve right where the darkened lines were that I had made. I did it very slowly, very carefully. I could not afford to make a mistake. When I lifted the edge of my knife from the tree, it formed a perfect heart shape. It may have been a little girly, but I was sure Milly would love it. She had always loved hearts. I picked up the pencil again. I drew two perfectly strait parallel lines, not involving much effort, in the center of the heart. One end of the lines angled slightly towared the ground; The other end, toward the sky. I looked up, admiring the sun that was shining down through the branches of the trees. I remembered something Milly had said to me once. She had always thought the sky was God’s greatest invention. I looked up at it with new appreciation. I shook my head. Now I was being extremely girly, even for Milly.
I went back to my work of continuing the arrow to extend on both sides, so that is stuck out at the sides of the heart. I added the tip of the arrow and stopped. It looked better with no feathers on the end, I thought. I sat for a moment on the forest floor and let myself go back. Back to all of our memories; the good, the great, and the just plain crazy.

We ran through a field and ducked behind a bush. Both of us had chosen to wear black for the capture the flag party, so we were near invisible in the early part of the night.
“Okay, you know the plan, right? You have to sneak around behind that stump there…” I pointed to a stump nearby. “…while I’m over here distracting them by pretending not to be a distraction.” Milly laughed quietly at the way I had worded our fairly simple plan.
“Ssshhhhh. Gosh, Milly!” I said, jokingly scolding her. “You’ll blow our cover.” I said a bit more loudly than was necessary. A few people turned, but we were safe in our hiding spot. I continued my summary of our genius plan.
“Then, while they try and catch me, you grab the flag and run back to our side. Got it?”
“Got it.” She whispered. Even in the dark, I could see her smile.
“Now remember, don’t move until I give the signal.” I said, knowing full well that we had not worked out a signal of any kind.
“What’s the signal?” She asked.
“You move when they start chasing me.” I explained, a huge grin on my face.
“Oh. Well that makes sense.” She said sarcastically.
“Good. Glad you understand.” I said, ignoring her sarcasm. “Ready?”
“Ready.” She said. I turned so that my back was facing her, ready to run. I spun around quickly.
“Wait! One more thing.” I said.
“What is it?” She asked, interested.
“Don’t get caught.” I said, grinning broadly.
“Oh, thanks. I wouldn’t have remembered that if you hadn’t told me.” She joked.
“No problem.” I said, turning back to my previous position. I crept forward until I was in plain view of both my team members and the opposing team. I searched the ground for a twig. When I found one, I stepped on it, snapping it with my foot. I froze, hoping to make it look like an accident. It was obviously convincing enough, because I heard shouts of ‘GET HIM!’ and ‘NO, THAT WAY!’ and even, ‘DON’T TAG ME, I’M ON YOUR TEAM’. Our plan was going perfectly. I could now see Milly running toward our side with the other team’s flag, and no one was chasing her. The only problem happened to be when I forgot to watch where I was running, and ran smack into Milly, knocking her down. We ended up lying in a heap on the ground, inches from our side of the field and laughing our heads off. Luckily for us, one of our other teammates grabbed the flag off of my shoe, where it had decided to land, and run it back to our side, so we still won. The only downside was the splitting headache that Milly and I shared the rest of the night.

I smiled as I remembered the relentless teasing we had received from our other teammates. But we hadn’t minded. We were happy with how thinks had turned out…headaches and all.