"A Photograph"
By Mario Mundo
24 July 2008
It was a starry night and I was with a very special friend. I invited her to come along to the hill near the cemetery in our town. I told her that I would pick her up at 8:00pm and we'd go together into the hill.
There was a ruin on the top of the hill. The last time I asked the townspeople what it was before, they've said to me that it was once a grand & beautiful church. It was destroyed during the great forest fire. The ruin was a beauty itself. It's ceiling was reaching for the moonlight, pulling it inside and thus illuminating the insides in a beautifully creepy solemn way. The feeling that anyone would feel the coldness it would bring if he is within the place.
It was 7:56pm and I called my friend to ask her if she's ready to go. I asked her to bring some chips, a a pair of blankets and a bottle of my favorite 1888 red wine. Her father was a wine enthusiast, that's why they have the most delicious wines in the world to offer. Sometimes when I come over to her house, we'd just sneak out their cellar and drink our hearts out.
She lives 3 houses away from mine. I went to pick her up after she called me to go there after 8 minutes. I brought some candles for our light source, some cold cuts my mom used to prepare every morning and my favorite cigarette, my luck strike.
We were chattering and laughing while we walked towards the hill. We were just reminiscing the funny things that happened to us during our JS Prom. Where we were the date partners and how we sneaked out the prom and just drink ourselves to drunkeness. As we near the foot of the hill, we heard voices which souned like a bunch of people having a great time, a party perhaps. To be honest, I was disappointed because I wanted that night to be special, but there was nothing we could do.
We proceed and were suprised but more of shocked to see our old friends in the ruin. They were having a great time. They were playing cards, the games we used to play during our grade school days. They welcomed me with utmost hospitality as they saw me. They did this as well with my friend. I was happy though, because I haven't seen them for such a long time. I apologized to my friend because of this might seem awkward. She didn't mind at all and just smiled.
We started drinking, sipping my favorite 1888 red wine and laughed through our old school memories. It seems that time has slowed down ten times slower than ever. Although I wasn't bored, it started to freak me out because since my friend and I got here, time hasn't moved a bit. I looked at my watch, it was still 8:00pm.
I excused myself because I had to take a leak. As I took a pee at the back of the ruins, everything suddenly became silent. As if someone has pressed the mute button on the remote control of television or someone tried to unplug a playing radio. I hurriedly zipped my fly and looked at my vintage watch and freaked out, it was still 8:00pm. I started to think that my watch was just broken.
I ran inside the ruin and saw nobody. I saw the pair of blankets, the bottle of the 1888 redwine, the plastic foils of the chips my friend has brought. I felt that chill, a goosebump, the coldness that you feel whenever you shiver.
As the zephyr got colder and colder, the moonlight didn't move as if time hasn't. Once again I looked at my watch and was still 8:00pm.
I went down the hill and went to my special friends' house. I looked through her bedroom window and saw the lit lamp. She was sitting on her bed, mourning. I tapped her window but she didn't move, as if she didn't hear it. I tried to open the window, but to my suprise it was locked which was very unlikely.
I stayed there, just staring at her. Then she stopped crying. I saw her putting my photograph in a frame on the desk beside her bed.
Again I looked at my vintage watch. It was still 8:00 in the evening...
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