Vulnerable Smile

By: K

No one knows how breakable life is and how vulnerable a smile…

But I do. Now I do…

- - - - - - -

Brown hair. Blue eyes. Pale skin, but not white. Gentle smile. Sparkling orbs.

You moved with a grace only few of us posses…

Every one adored you. Girls wanted to be your friend, boys wanted you to be their girlfriend…so, naturally, so did I…

I loved you the first time I laid eyes on you.

Every day was the same… I would look for you. Search you with my eyes. Just to see you smile.

You are beautiful. Yes, everybody can see that. Yet that is not why I fell for you… It was your smile. Unique smile. Always and for everyone.

A stab of jealousy. I fell in love with the curving of your lips, yet you smile at everyone, for everyone… I want to have it, posses it. Keep it with me forever.

After we finished our school, I’ve never seen you again. Never. Until today. On the news… I immediately recognised you. How could I not? Your presence has hunted my dreams every night. But it was your smile that I remember most. It has been craved in my mind…

Yet when I see you now…

It’s a picture of you. And, of course, you smile. You always smile… Pieces of sentences reach my ears. Empty words.

“Young woman… Terrible accident… Car crash… No pain… Immediately dead…”

Lonely tears fall down. Silently…

Arms around me. My head against a shoulder. Hands rubbing my back.

You don’t question. You don’t judge. You simply hold me. Close against your warm body.

No words are spoken. We don’t need to… Through our silence I know that you finally know…

- - -- - -

Yes, I know now… Life is so breakable. And a smile… A smile is the most vulnerable thing in the world…

You’ve always been hiding behind it. No one ever knew you. The real you, it’s a mystery. Even now still. A riddle…

Yes, even a smile is vulnerable…

&The End&