Em Thorne
Alfred - The Contender
How I Live Now - Part Two .
As much as I love you “I can’t stay here, with you” .. The room stayed silent after those few words. It’d been 2 years after Daisy came back to London, and things had changed after the war she’d experience at first hand. She had fallen in love with her surroundings. She had fallen in love with her cousin who had shown her much emotion 8 years ago, but he hangs on to the fact that she “left”. “Then leave..Again” he said. First words I’d heard in 3 months from him, thought Daisy, I would have expected a fight. But he said 3 words, and I was kissing Piper on the forehead goodbye, and left for the United States. “Well, back to the city life of New York.” she said. She’d fought for a while the tears, held them back, locked them away, but she couldn’t fight how much she’d loved him. How much she wanted him, but he didn’t try, so why should she? ..So she cried, for a while. And wished Piper were with her to comfort her sobbing, but when she turned to her right a snotty child was playing her Nintendo DS kicking the seat ahead of her which seemed to be her father. Next to her sat a man, who appeared to be upset too. “Damn, is everyone upset..?” She thought to herself. She couldn’t stand it, so she stood up and left and as she walked down the aisle he said, “Excuse me ma’am. My name is Alfred Brooks..” “Oh, uhmm.” She’d stopped crying for some reason. Maybe it was the look of innocence in his eyes. Maybe it was because she felt welcomed, but either way she had stopped crying. She smiled, said Hello very politely and walked to find the nearest bathroom. In the bathroom the smell was so horrid she couldn’t take it, was everything going to be wrong today? After all she went through to find this man she loves and he kicks her out of the country. She left the bathroom and when she came back, Alfred was gone. She wished she’d never walked away from him, the look he gave her made her feel special. It made her feel comfortable. It confused her and so she kicked the thoughts out of her head and ordered some sparkling apple cider and a nice little dinner. She soon fell asleep.
She woke up a few hours later and to her surprise Alfred was back, but this time the little girl was gone and seated ahead with her father sound asleep. Alfred looked at her with a funny smile and Daisy realized she was drooling in her sleep. Embarrassed she wiped it off like nothing happened. He laughed. Oh, such a sweet laugh. He began to talk and whiles later they were just finishing a debate about how Movies are better than books and vice versa. But it was his stop and he needed to go home to Denver, Colorado. They exchanged numbers and soon began to talk over phone conversations and frequent video chats. He’d become her best friend, and she became his. She discovered that life doesn’t need to be about silence. She got back into the city life and found a job. She didn’t need London, and London didn’t need her...
The Contender- Life after a Dream.
“What if we were all a dream, and when we died it was the person who was dreaming us waking up” Alfred said to Daisy over an ooVoo video chat. They both had ordered Chinese food hoping it would come at the same time but of course, NY was faster and she was already half done when he received his. She moved her china food around a white container with chopsticks trying to find the right lump of noodles to eat. “HELLO, Woman.” he said..”Did you hear me?” “Oh, calm down Alfred, I was thinking.” She replied. “I think it would be quite amazing, maybe when we die we meet her in our next life” ..”Well, what if it was a he, He stated” “Oh my goodness, Alfred, Where did you hear about this?” “I don’t know, honestly” he said, thinking at the same time. He’d always done this, he’d gone from a Brooklyn hoodlum to a study type college kid, and he liked it. He had his group of friends and Daisy, that was all he needed. He wanted to see Daisy so bad, her long black hair and big blue eyes were always on his mind, but he never would show the indication that he totally loved her. He’d send her gifts and she’d send him gifts, they’d have Chinese get together when they ooVoo’ed, and surely she only liked him as a guy friend. Typical though. “Well, I have to get going, I don’t want to be late for work. I’ve got night shift.” She said. But he didn’t want her to go, he wanted to stay for a long time. Maybe forever, but that was impossible. She was always on the move. He accepted her though, she did what she had to do and he admired that. “Alright, no problem” he said, “Chat ya’ tomorrow” and CLICK she was gone. and the computer screen was black once again. Alfred grabbed his boxing stuff, head for the door and as he got ready to close the door he said “Love you.” As if she were his wife and he was still ooVooing with her. He shut the door. He walked down the apartment hall, down 3 flights of stairs and out the door into the cold winter night. It was snowing. And he could barely see anything. He heard some gun shots and everything was over. Alfred was dead.
How I live now2 - I got a call, with news I’d hoped I’d never have to hear. They said Alfred was gone, and I refused to believe, but when i arrived in Denver, Colorado it was true. She walked into a quiet room and looked at the vase that holds her best friend. She held her faced and sobbed. “I never got to tell you I love you.” She said.
