THE COLOUR OF ...

She had thought he would have found a life for himself as he began to work and interact with people of the outside world but what she did not know was that though he became more confident in himself as a guy, she had become his world and he never wanted her to leave. For Maria, the most difficult thing she had to do in her life was to explain to him that she did not share such close feelings. He was, to her, just a special friend.

FROM PAGE XI not an attraction where the heart speaks of love nor the passion of a kiss. It was holding his hand to stop the taunts and the ridicule as he fought an inner battle to find a foothold in a man’s world.

She had begun to understand the feelings of infatuation and love, from those who paid court to her, as the years went by, but she did not leave her friend, protecting his image for all five years of high school. Maria replaced the book on the shelf and exited her old room for some fresh air in the garden outside. As she sat on the swing, she thought, “I couldn’t believe I did that, no wonder it was so hard for him to move on.”

Maybe it would have been easier if she had, had a boyfriend and left him to fight his own battles.

“But, maybe,” she thought, “It was meant to happen that way.”

Her heart found new desires with charming young men for her as a woman that would become a part of her life as she began dating and the further down that path, she walked, the farther back he was left, standing alone.

The pain in his eyes that day, which he tried to hide, left her with a sense of guilt and she did not see him again for a little while until they ran into each other at a book fair. He said he was with two beautiful girls from the office where he worked and it pleased her heart, easing the guilt from her mind that he was getting somewhere with his life.

Two months later, on her birthday, he brought her the amethyst pendant that he told her he hoped she would keep forever to remember him.

“Oh no,” Maria exclaimed and ran upstairs to her room. She opened the desk drawer and took out the pendant.

“I left it here when I got married and moved away.”

She clasped the chain around her neck and whispered, cross