“The Future” by Audrey (Gimin) 10H

When I was very young, I met a girl. She was 17, I know that for sure, and I was about 6. I remember thinking that she was very pretty. She smiled at me and knelt down in the grass. I was playing on top of a small hill; it might seem irresponsible to some that my parents were letting me play alone, but this was a village where everyone knew each other. As soon as I made my way down, there would be someone to recognise me and take me back to my parents

I looked up at her and asked what her name was. She told me it was Lynne. I was young and simple and saw no reason to continue talking to her now that my curiosity had been sated, so I played by myself in silence before my parents came to collect me. Lynne was already gone by then.

A handful of years later, I met her again I had just started middle school and was lounging on a bench, completely spent after a long school day She skipped up to me and waved before pointing at her face, beaming like seeing me was the best thing about her afternoon

“Remember me?” she asked

I blinked She must have sensed my confusion as she elaborated, “I’m Lynne From when you were a kid?”

“Oh,” I replied. I had foggy memories of a girl with flowing hair smiling down at me. “Lynne. You look the same.”

She giggled and sat next to me I briefly wondered how she could recognise me from a single meeting that happened years ago, but brushed it aside in favour of talking to someone new As nice as the town was, it was boring. All it was to me back then was a never-ending stream of the same faces over and over again.

In my mind we talked for hours She was the most interesting person I had met Her voice had a breathy quality to it and she recounted events like she had experienced them centuries ago ‘It was so long ago’s and ‘I was so young then’s filled the air as she told me story after story But eventually, the sun started to set and I had to go home.

She became a part of my life after that Every day I would go to find her so I could sit and listen I had loved to lose myself in the worlds she created, and every moment where I wasn’t with her was spent daydreaming When I woke up my head was filled with tales of royalty During lunch I drifted off to sea, and before I tucked myself in I fantasised about ballrooms Lynne always stayed the same Same face, same height, same voice And she still talked like she had existed for centuries

I had worked up the courage to ask her about it on a snowy day We had been sitting on the hill again, delicate crystals getting caught in our hair and dampening our clothes She laughed and told me that aging was so tedious she decided to stop I was puzzled but accepted it After all, she was an interesting girl in a dull village If she wasn’t completely human then so be it

But aging wasn’t a choice for me I grew as the years passed and the future loomed over me I had been terrified at what it meant and so I waited for something to save me I was ignorant back then I thought that wanting meant you would be getting Soon I realised there was nothing coming for me No flash of lighting, no knight in shining armour, no grand sign that I could be something more than another face in the crowd So I longed for something different but never did anything to make it happen.

My had peers moved on My teachers had retired My neighbours had moved out

I'd stayed I’d decided to stay and be young forever Just like Lynne I told her so, and she smiled

But then a sign came. It wasn’t anything like I had expected. Nothing like those fairytales I kept close to my heart. Instead of a swooping hawk or a sudden death, my revelation was a party. It was a small celebration between family and friends for Jackie Day who had got accepted into some faraway city’s college. As one of her neighbours, I had been an attendee. And when I saw the look on her face I knew what I wanted.

She looked exhilarate and terrified Like one wrong word would send her running I knew then that I would give anything to feel like that; to feel something that made my heart thump And I realised I would have to work for it.

I told Lynne my decision It hadn’t been a confrontation, not really Just a quiet mention that I was going to take a chance That I would come back

Lynne didn’t see it that way She had screamed that I was abandoning her and cried as she clawed at my arms

I sighed

“Is it really so hard to grow old?”

“Yes!” she cried out, appalled. She gave me one last look before stalking off, her hair flying behind her like a flag.

I had returned the next day, then the next, then the next I slowly realised that the only thing I’d hear from her was her shuffling behind the closed door I resigned myself to the fact that she wanted nothing to do with me, and stopped coming back

It wasn’t easy, leaving her behind But I had things I wanted to do, things I wanted to see So I moved to the city

It was far from perfect It was messy and noisy and there were days where I would have rather torn my hair out than get out of bed In spite of that, I loved my life I had grabbed the reigns instead of sitting in the back and mourning what I refused to do

Hence, I decided to pay her a visit. I drove back and met with my parents. I hugged them and sat on their table, soaking in the warmth they provided me before grabbing my shoes.

I found her on the hill At first she was a silhouette, a figure swaying with the wind like a reed

Her hair was sheared short Her eyes had wrinkles around the corners, the kind that came with laughter She was taller She smiled at me And together, we talked about the future