Colin_527
Legacy Name: Colin_527

A little boy was crouched over something in the grass. The setting sun reflected off his tousled brown hair, casting deep shadows onto his face and enhancing the wrinkles in his brow as he studiously stared at the ground.

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

The boy looked up, startled. In his surprise, he fell backwards onto his behind. A little girl in a neatly ironed dress and plaited blond hair was standing on the cobblestone driveway watching him.

"I WAS looking at a cool bug 'til you made me lose my spot," accused the boy, glaring at the girl, "now he's gone and it is ALL your fault!" He roughly brushed his hair away from his face and deliberately turned his body away from the girl.

"I'm sorry. Can I help you find him?" The little girl walked over to where the little boy was sitting on the lawn.

"Okay." The boy scrambled up from to grass and held out a hand to the girl, "what's your name?"

"Eee-Zah-Belle."

"Colin."

The two children solemnly exchanged a handshake under the watchful eyes of the sunset sky.

Sitting on a swing in an empty park in the late afternoon, a young boy kicked out at the ground. Hot tears threatened to roll down his face, but he shook his head aggressively. No! He was not going to get upset because of that.

He swung back and forth absentmindedly, his left foot on the ground keeping up the motion.

He tried to push the events out of his head, but they consumed him. The tears he tried so valiantly to keep away rolled down his face.

Placing his left arm over his eyes, he willed the tears to stop. After a few moments, he composed himself and blinked his eyes back open.

A shadow loomed over him, and he turned around to see a small girl.

"Here," she stuck her arms out and handed him a small bouquet of freshly picked yellow flowers.

"What are these for?" he took them, confused by the gesture.

"Because they look like happiness, and I hope they will make you smile." She took a seat on the swing next to him.Clutching the flowers to his chest with one hand, he glanced over at her.

"You're so weird."

"Yeah, I know."

The sound of swings creaking back and forth echoed around the empty park. There the two children sat without feeling the need to speak further, each comfortably enjoying the afternoon and the other's presence.

The bright sun shone down on the quiet neighbourhood. The only sound to be heard this beautiful summer afternoon was the laughter of two kids running around under the shade of a huge oak tree.

"You'll never catch me!" shrieks the boy joyfully as he dodges deftly away from the grabbing hand of the girl.

"Oh yeah? Just watch me!" the girl feinted left then ran right, catching the boy unawares. The two fell onto the grass in a tangled heap of arms and legs, laughing and shouting.

A few minutes later, the laughter peters out till all that can be heard is the hard breathing of two worn out kids.

"Hey Colin," the girl sat up suddenly and looked over at the boy, her head cocked to the side in curiosity.

"Yeah Izzy?"

"Have you ever kissed a girl?" the girl's inquisitive voice now took on a teasingly condescending tone.

"Of course I have!" the boy retorted, having developed an extreme interest in the oak behind the girl at that moment.

"Your mom doesn't count you dope." Laughing, the young girl got up and stood above her friend. "I dare you to kiss me now...that will count." This caused the boy to look up at her, squinting from the sunshine glaring off her hair.

"Do you promise to stay still?" The girl bobbed her head quickly. "Okay."

The boy picked himself off the lawn and promptly squeezed his eyes shut, causing a round of giggles to erupt from the young girl's lips. As he leaned forward, he heard the giggles change into uncontrollable laughter and opened his eyes to see the girl a few metres away. "hey!" he exclaimed, with a peeved look in his deep blue eyes, "you promised!"

"I did," responded the girl, her face full of mischief, "but only if you can catch me. But since you are so slow, that will never happen!" With that, she turned and ran.

"That's not fair!" the boy shouted after the rapidly disappearing figure. With a look of determination mixed with relief, he sprinted after his friend.

The normally quiet suburban neighbourhood was wide awake this sleepy Saturday morning with the sounds of ambulance alarms.

A young girl was being carted away from a house at the end of the block, her wide eyes decorated with tears. She sat up as far as she could, trying to get a better look at her leg; a nice man had told her it was probably broken.

She should have known better than to listen to him. Their parents had still been in bed when he had knocked on her door that morning. He had thought it would be just great fun to jump from the top of a tree in his backyard down onto a trampoline.

"Imagine the height you'll get when you bounce back up!" he had exclaimed. Although she tried to make small protests, like, "What about our parents? We should ask them," those protests were quickly drowned out in her growing excitement.

They had clambered up the tree together, with him holding a steadying arm out as she picked a spot to jump from, and"

She had miscalculated by mere inches and her left leg had caught the edge of the trampoline while the rest of her crashed to the ground. The horrible twist of her leg had wrenched a loud cry from her mouth, bringing out the parents and later, the ambulance, where she sat now.

She could just see his head out of the ambulance doors, his whole body bobbing up and down with his dramatic movements. He was stamping his feet and wailing out with loud protests. "I WANT TO GO. I WANT TO RIDE IN THE AMBULANCE. I HAVE TO GO. WHY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND??"

A small chuckle came out past the tears, as she was amused by the looks of horror and embarrassment on his parents' faces, while he remained stubbornly committed to his tantrum.

"Colin," she called out to him, her voice rough from crying. "Don't leave me."

He stopped for a moment, and she saw firm resolution in his eyes. "Never."

The ambulance pulled away from the neighbourhood just before lunch, carrying two children safely inside.

The cool, crisp morning sun gleamed off the polished wooden porch of a beautiful suburban house. It would have been a delightful atmosphere ―birds flew about, twittering from branch to branch in the towering oak tree shadowing the yard― if not for the sound of heart wrenching sobs coming from the upstairs.

A window of the neighbouring house was abruptly shoved open and the head of a teenage boy poked out. Swiftly, the rest of the boy's body emerged from the house and he nimbly climbed across the branches of the tree separating the two houses. With a worried look on his face, he tapped on the window where the sound of weeping was loudest.

"Izzy?"

"GO AWAY!" the shrill cry was emphasized by something thumping against the windowpane.

"Come-on, Izzy! Let me in. I won't go away. In fact, I'm going to sit on this extremely fragile branch until you let me in...or until I fall. Whichever comes first." The boy settled himself into a more comfortable position and sat down to wait.

A few minutes later, the window slowly slid open and the tear stained face of a girl peered out from a slit the curtains. In one fluid motion, the boy deftly moved from his perch in the tree into the room of his best friend. Instantly, the distraught girl threw herself into the boy's chest with such force that the momentum nearly sent the two of them back through the open window.

"Careful Iz!" the boy murmured gently catching his friend with one arm while using the other to ease himself away from the window ledge, "it's a long and painful drop out that window."

At the warmth of the boy's voice, fresh tears began streaming down the girl's face and she buried her face in his shirt. The sound of her inconsolable cries made the boy's insides twist painfully. That ungrateful bastard. How could he break her heart so?

The two stood there by the window until the boy could not stand it any longer. He wiped away the tears on his friend's face and put on a bright smile. "Come on, we're going out."

"But... I'm a mess!" the girl gestured wearily at her tear stained face and her swollen eyes.

"You look beautiful." With a sly look on his face, the boy climbed out the window gently tugging the girl out with him. Before long, the two were walking down the street; the boy's arm protectively around the shoulders of the girl.

~*~

"The carnival?" the girl looked quizzically at her friend, her lips twitching with a ghost of a smile, "I...you... I didn't know the carnival was in town."

"It's only here for the weekend," was the reply as the boy silently noted the mood shift in his companion. "Come, there's a stuffed bear with your name on it." With that, the boy gently propelled the girl towards the lively sounds and colours of the festivities.

For the two teenagers, the rest of the day passed by in a blur of games and rides. As the hours went by, the girl's mood lifted more and more. By late evening, her laughter was easy and there was spring to her step. She was still hurting inside --she knew that for certain-- but Colin's stubbornly sunny disposition banished her gloomy thoughts to the furthest corner of her brain.

At last, the carnival was drawing to an end. The only thing left was the fireworks. Outlined by the glow of the carnival lights, the two children lounged on a grassy hillside overlooking the harbour silently sharing a bag of popcorn.

"Colin?" the girl leaned against the boy's chest and gazed out to see the first fireworks shoot up into the sky.

"Mmhmm?"

"Thank you." She whispered those two simple words; there was no need to say anything more.

A stream of bright, silvery moonlight shone through a second story window and illuminated the sleeping form of a teenage girl. On her bed side, a digital clock gave off a warm glow, displaying 11:59 on its face.

With not a whisper, the display flickered to 12:00, and not a moment afterwards, a gentle tapping resonated on the windowpane, bringing the girl back from the land of dreams. Outlined by the moonlight was her best friend --and neighbour-- perched lightly on a branch of the great oak in between their houses. He gestured for her to join him outside and disappeared from view.

Now what could he want? The girl shook her head in bewildered amusement but opened the window and climbed delicately out onto the tree.

"Did anyone ever tell you that sneaking around in the middle of the night and peeping into windows is wrong?" The girl yawned, looking around for culprit guilty of interrupting her sleep, "most people would classify that as stalking."

A bark of laughter sounded from somewhere above her, echoing off the quiet neighbourhood. She looked up in surprise to see the familiar figure lounging carelessly on the roof of her house. Something is definitely wrong with his brain, she thought. With a smile twitching on the corner of her lips, she climbed upwards with her head full of questions.

Not too much later, she plonked herself down on the shingles beside her friend and gave him a playful shove. "NOW will you explain?" she tried to maintain a serious face but failed miserably.

"Close your eyes," he replied mysteriously. She obliged, but not before rolling her eyes dramatically to express her exasperation.

As soon as she fully closed her eyes, she felt a cool, heavy object come to rest at the base of her throat and she explored its shape with her fingers. It was smooth, but with pointed corners, like a cube.

"You can look now." Buzzing with curiosity, she opened her eyes locked into the laughing blue ones of the boy in front of her before casting them downwards.

"Oh!" she gasped in surprise. In her fingers, she held a delicate crystal charm in the shape of a wrapped present. Moonlight winked off its intricately carved sides, casting spectrums in the very centre. "It's so beautiful!" She leaned over and grabbed her friend in a fierce hug.

"Happy 16th birthday Izzy."

In the darkness, the two of them were still in their embrace. Suddenly, she felt a quick kiss on her cheek. Taken aback, she leaned backwards to see a mischievous glint dancing in his eyes. "What?" her voice trailed off as she searched for the right words.

"I never lose a dare," he said quite simply, grinning impishly, "and you aren't as quick as you think." At her bewildered expression, he burst into laughter.

For a moment, she sat there staring at him uncomprehendingly as her mind whirled to try to decipher what he said. However, it didn't take very long for comprehension to dawn on her face as she remembered that bright summer afternoon so many years ago and her laughter joined his, carried freely across the sleeping neighbourhood by the gentle night.

Twinkling stars yawned in the dark night sky, like sleepy guardians of those beneath its blanket. Muted sounds of conversation sank outside, where two young adults walked slowly around the garden. Her high heels clicked sharply on the garden stones, and the ice cubes in his beverage made soft tinkling sounds as they swished around in the glass.

He inhaled sharply and started the conversation, "So, we've graduated."She hummed in pleasant agreement, and he continued, "Do you know what you want to do now? With the rest of your life, I mean."

A burst of laughter from indoors into the chill night, and she chuckled. "Sounds like our families are enjoying our graduation party more than we are!"

She pulled a face, and he laughed along with her. She wrung her hands and spoke slowly. "Well, I got the last of my acceptance letters last week, and I picked a university to go to."

"Really?" he interrupted excitedly. "Izzy, that's great! I knew you were destined for the Ivy Leagues."

A broad smile swept the girl's face. "Yeah, I think so, too! I mean, there's the whole world out there, you know?"

They stopped walking and paused to look at the night sky. In comparison to the enormity of the universe, they seemed so small. "Yeah, I know," the boy paused as the thought pulled at him. "I think I'm going to start travelling. Maybe in a month or so. I just want to see what all is out there."

Tilting her head, she nodded appreciatively. "I can see you doing that." She laughed as a sudden idea popped into her head. "Just watch! You're going to go woo all the European girls and completely forget about coming back."

"I just might do that!" They laughed until the reality of the idea sunk in. It could happen.

"Come back, Colin," she murmured. He took her hand in a reassuring gesture and squeezed it lightly before letting go. "I'm just so unsure what's going to happen. The future is both exciting and terrifying to me."

"I know," he replied. "I feel the same way."

They climbed up the back porch and sat on the wooden steps, each lost in thought, but appreciating the comfort of the other's presence. For on that warm summer night, the world was broad, warm and solemn.

Being in an airport on the day before Christmas Eve is a nightmare in itself: throngs of people pack the vast terminals; all harried, anxious and generally ill-tempered. Some are trying to rush home in time for a family gathering, others are trying to leave to one exotic destination or another but one thing was the same: the look of worry on their faces.

Amidst the wave of negativity, one young man stood out. His deep blue eyes sparkled with excitement as he tried as best as he could to get through the crowd as quickly as possible without injuring anyone with his luggage.

How much could home have changed in the year he was gone? Would she be happy to see me? Questions of all sorts swarmed in his head as he walked through the arrivals terminal but one thing was for sure; he was glad to be home after more than a year of traveling the world.

~*~

In the airport lobby, a young lady was bouncing on the balls of her feet; too excited to stand still. The bouquet of yellow flowers in her arms bobbed along with her.

"Woah there! Those flowers aren't going to survive that kind of abuse for much longer."

The girl turned to see that the man standing beside her was smiling and she offered a sheepish grin in response. "Oops."

"You waiting for someone special?" the man gestured to the slightly wilted flowers.

"Not really," the girl blushed, looking down at her toes. "how about you?"

The man's mouth twitched with a knowing smile, "My fiance is flying in from Toronto. We're getting married on New Year's Eve." His eyes acquired a far-off look at the mention of the marriage.

"Congratulations! I wish you two a wonderful life together." the girl began to say something else but at that moment, the door of the arrivals terminal slid open and the newly acquainted duo turned their attention to the onslaught of people, each waiting for their someone to show.

~*~

Now, where is she? The boy stood in the doorway to the lobby, scanning the crowd of people holding signs, flowers and sometimes both. His eyebrows furrowed as he scanned the congested space.

"Colin!" the boy snapped his head towards the sound of his name being called. As his eyes met those of the girl running towards him, his face broke into a wide smile.

"Hey Izzy," he murmured as he opened his arms wide and caught his best friend in a tight embrace when she barrelled into him, "I missed you."

"I missed you too," the girl mumbled, burrowing her face into his shoulder, causing him to laugh as her hair tickled his face.

Eventually, the girl pulled away and peered up at the boy's face. "You've grown," she said, her lips twitching with a growing grin. "Oh, and these are for you," she held up the battered flowers and they both smiled at a decade old memory as the bouquet exchanged hands.

The boy stared at the bouquet for a few moments longer and suddenly tossed them aside. Before the girl could open her mouth, he drew her close and kissed her full on the lips. The girl's hurt expression instantly transformed into shock before slipping into a look of pure delight. She threw her arms around the boy's neck pulling him even closer and whispered just one word:
"finally."

The rain came down to heavy to be described as a mist, yet to lightly to be pouring. In fact, the only thing to say it could be was a shower and a freezing one at that. On the sidewalk, a young man strode along, seemingly oblivious to the chilling sleet that soaked his hair; turning it from a golden brown to a colour reminiscent of dark chocolate.

April showers bring May flowers. Colin smiled at the thought as he shook some of the slushy substance from his quickly freezing hair. Nothing could ruin this day, nothing. As if conjured by his thoughts, his cell phone buzzed twice. His grin grew wider as he saw the incoming caller's name.

"Hey Izzy, you'd better not be cancelling our plans for tonight." His voice was teasing as he answered the phone.

"Why on earth would you think that?" her voice filled him with a warmth that expelled all the coldness that had seeped in with the rain. He could practically hear her eyes roll at his comment. "It's not like I feel guilty about not seeing my parents after abandoning them for University in the states for months and am instead being dragged to a dinner at a ridiculously fancy restaurant." This time it was his turn to roll his eyes.

"It'll be great to see you Isabelle." His voice grew soft, wondering almost as he fingered a small velvet box in his pocket.

"You too Colin. See you at six?"

"Wouldn't miss it." He took a step forward and nearly slipped on a patch of ice as he reached to open the door of a shop.

"Drive safe."

~*~

"Some weather we're having huh?"

The young man looked up from brushing ice off his jacket to see the shopkeeper smiling at him. "It's really unusual for this time of year that's for sure."

The older gentleman laughed. "So what can I do for you this icy day?" He gestured around at the flowers that covered every inch of the shop. "What's the occasion? A date? Dinner party? For family?"

"Something to match this." Colin reached into his pocket and produced a velvet box.

"Today certainly is special isn't it? How do these look?" The shopkeeper produced a flawless bouquet of a dozen red roses.

"Those are beautiful... but I'm looking for yellow flowers, primroses to be exact."

"Of course, just give me a moment." The shopkeeper disappeared into a back room and reappeared moments later with a vase of sunshine yellow flowers, "are these what you were thinking of?"

"Those are perfect!" Colin picked up the vase and examined it from all angles. "How mu..." His question was cut off by the urgent buzz of his cell phone. With an apologetic glance at the shopkeeper, he picked up the call.

"Hello?"

There was a pause in which all colour and gaiety drained from his face. In the silence, he dimly heard the sound of glass shattering into a million pieces on the tiled floor.

~*~

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The heart monitor's meticulously cold pulsation sent ice seeping into his bones, a chill that fixed him to the floor insensible to everything but that eerie rhythm.

"Sir?"

Colin's eyes focused with difficulty on the man standing in front of him; a doctor? He couldn't bring himself to care.

"Sir? She's going to be okay. She's very lucky. With the car in that kind of state, it's a miracle that she has nothing more serious than a concussion." The man gave him a reassuring pat on the arm and a small smile before leaving the room.

Colin sank down into the nearest chair. On the bed laid the figure of a young woman, pale and unmoving apart from the slight rise and fall of her chest. A white bandage covered her forehead, on which a blood red stain made a startling contrast to the pallid form swathed in white sheets. She's so still, he thought, his mind drifting back in time, trying to recall the last time she had ever been still. Try as he might, he couldn't and that thought brought a small smile to his lips.

"Colin?" The soft whisper of his name being spoken jolted him out of his thoughts. In a flash he was kneeling by the bed, his eyes locked onto the groggy gaze of the young lady.

"Hey Iz. I'm here." He gently rested his hand on hers.

"Colin?" she repeated his name in the same gently pleading way.

"Mmhmm?"

"Don't leave me." Her hand shifted slightly under his till their fingers where intertwined.

"Never."