THE COLOUR OF AMETHYST

MARIA held the silver chain in her hand, its pendant, the birthstone of Pisces, and as she looked at the amethyst gem, regrets glinted in her light brown eyes.

“It’s been such a long time,” she mused, “I wonder where you must be today and what you have become.”

The chain had been a birthday gift from her best friend, the friend she had stood by when he needed her, the friend with whom she had shared the same literary passions and dreams.

They were like one, as Pisceans sharing the same birthstone, but people change, desires change and she broke his heart when she couldn’t return the love he felt for her.

“He was such a nice person, gentle and lovable,” she said quietly, “But I couldn’t love him, not with the kind of passion of being in love.”

She put the pendant back in its velvet box that had sat at the back of her old desk drawer, forgotten.

They had become friends since the beginning of high school. That patterned changes in their lives, creating a special bond.

She was fair, petite, and shy, a pretty girl with her long hair tied in plaits, portraying the look of pure innocence that attracted the older boys who tried to woo her. He was fairer with trim, curly hair, smooth skin, and a neat outlook, something different from the normal male personality that attracted ridicule and taunts from the boys. He wasn’t athletic. He ran like a girl, they said. He couldn’t play cricket or football and no one wanted him on their team, so he sat alone in class during break periods, reading. His classmates did not care much for his silent suffering, a brave soul trying to be normal. nances, who were excellent arts students, loved by their teachers.

One day he walked over to her desk and asked her nervously, “What are you reading?”

She had looked up and smiled, for it was the sixth time she had been asked that question for the morning. Now she felt she could answer, “Stephen King – The Pet Cemetery.”

“I’m reading James Patterson,” He said

“I read his books too and anything else I can get my hands on.”

He had laughed and that day was the beginning of a unique friendship, a pretty girl, boys were eager to befriend, and a boy with a different personality.

Maria looked at the books on the shelves, neatly arranged, her priceless collection of literature, history, and fiction and she smiled as fond memories of her friend found their way into her thoughts, lost they had been through the ravines of time. The one path they had walked had separated in two and their dreams and passions sat on the shelves among the books, waiting.

She had not been home for a long time, having married and moved away, becoming a mother, a social worker, and a sales representative, and the girlhood dreams she had nurtured to become a lawyer, became lost somewhere, fate changing the course of her life.

But it touched her heart and somehow she felt his pain, for she was closer to him, sitting alone in class too, reading, though for a different reason. She was scared of the close attention of the senior boys, a few who had broken up with their girlfriends for her, one of the girls being her cousin.

She was not quite ready for it, having just crossed the threshold into adolescence and not wanting to fall prey to infatuation.

The two of them had sat at their desks, reading, not saying much, a boy and girl with pleasant counte -

She took down a book of poems he had given her as a valentine’s gift and as she flicked through, a worn piece of paper fell from between the pages – it was the shape of a heart with their names printed – ‘Maria & Chris –Friends forever’.

It was a friendship the boys in school couldn’t understand for he did not have the looks and characteristics of a typical male and she was spending her time with him on lunch dates and movies.

Only Maria knew it was