Last Vacation

After some restless weeks, SPM was finally over! My anticipation grew larger as we decided to stay in the city for a few days and visit the new theme park . At that time, I was not aware of the surprise that awaited me there.
It was a weekend that we arrived, thus crowds were inevitable. We had some hard times squeezing through those people just to buy tickets. My friends were so impatient to try the new “Frenzy Flames” game and I was left far behind. I tried to catch up but with my timid figure, it seemed impossible.
Then many things happened at the same time; one of them, the surprise I mentioned earlier. I was keeping my pace up. There was this figure that appeared in front of me out of nowhere, I tried to speed down, however, to no avail.
BONG!
We both fell to the ground. Getting my sight clearer, I tried to look at the person I bumped into. My eyes opened wide, mouth fell agape.
“Sister?” I questioned myself.
It was a girl. She had long, black hair reaching her chest while her small, ebony eyes were sparkling. Her lips were strawberry red. She wore a lipstick pink shirt matched with deep indigo jeans. Along with her spectacles, she resembled my sister very much. Well, my deceased sister. Leukemia took her away.
I was still frozen with shock that she quickly stood up.
“Gomenasai!” she said, quite hastily, and bowed for a couple of times.
And that brought me back to reality. Only then I realised the situation and many eyes were already staring at me. I got up and faced the girl.
“Erm, huh? Gemenasa?”
“Oh, it’s gomenasai. I mean, I’m sorry!” she replied, though lacking fluency.
“N-No-No problem!”
“Hey, if you don’t mind, how about going to Mc Donald’s together? Let me buy you something.” she smiled, her eyes were glittering, at least that was what I thought.
“B-But I don’t even know you.” I answered, blood boiling in my head.
“You will.”
As my so-called friends had abandoned me, I accepted her invitation. At first I was quite ashamed to make my order but she picked Double Cheese Burger for me, which was exactly my favorite! How could she know that? She took Big Mac for herself, and that was my sister’s favorite! Was it fate or just sheer coincidence? I sighed on that idea.
“Konichi-wa, my name is Aya. I am a Japanese.” she introduced, bowed like she had done before.
“I see. You’re here for vacation?”
“Yes, my last vacation” she replied. The “last” word was spoken so low that I could barely hear the pronunciation. Her face turned sour suddenly as if she had lost hope on something. At that instant, she turned into her former happy-go-lucky self again.
We had a pretty good time with the chit-chat between us. The more time I spent with her, the more I thought she were my sister. Such warmth, such chemistry she had matched my sister’s very much. What trick was fate playing?
As we chatted longer, I told her about my sister.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay!” I said, trying to cover up my grief. “Hey, how do you say these words in Japanese?”
“What words?”
There came a voice and it was my phone. My friends were looking for me, how annoying! I managed to exchange phone numbers with Aya and off searching for my friends. Perhaps, later, I would regret leaving her just like that.
The next day, a phone call woke me up. It was Aya.
“Come find me.” she sounded brief, very brief.
“But where are you?”
“I’ll lead you.”
Burning with curiosity, I followed every direction she gave. Eventually, I came to a building-----a hospital. Now, curiosity turned into fear. What had happened to her?
“Come to the top.” she said and it was the end of the call.
I rushed into the hospital and searched desperately for ways to get to the top. My heart was beating fast while sweat was streaming down ceaselessly. At last, I got it to the top and there Aya was, lying on the ground.
I hurried beside her. Noticing me, she smiled again.
“I’m going to a place.”
“Huh? Where?”
“To where your sister has gone.”
“What? Are you joking?”
Aya wanted to say something but she began to cough and it worsened within every second. Then blood began to flow out from her eyes, nostrils and ears. I saw this before; when my sister was dying.
Her hand moved and I grabbed it tightly. Her lips were moving, however, there seemed to be no sound. I went nearer to her and now it was clearer.
“What-were-were the-the-words-you wanted-me to say in-Japanese?” she whispered slowly in my ear.
I was going to answer but my tears met my cheeks first. How I wanted to hug her and cry as loudly as I desired!
“Trans-late-translate this sence-sentence.” I was barely able to speak out each words for the pain inside was tormenting me.
“The sentence ‘I like you’.”
There was no voice in my ear but I could feel Aya’s left hand move. One of the fingers touched the flowing blood under her eye and began writing something, in alphabets, on the ground.
“DAISUKIDAYO.”
As if being struck by a thunderclap, I shouted as much as my throat could afford. The pain inside was too much for me to keep silent. With all her leftover strength, Aya smiled the way she did the first time we met and closed her eyes. Then, though vividly, I saw an angel holding a girl flying up the sky.
Just not long after that, two figures appeared from the entrance; Aya’s parents. From them, I discovered that Aya had leukemia as well. She came to Malaysia because there was a suitable bone marrow donor here. Unfortunately, the donor took back his voluntary. And yesterday, Aya sneaked out from the hospital to spend her “last vacation”.
“Doctor Jinn, the leukemia forum is about to begin. Everyone’s waiting for you.” came a whole different voice, this time from a nurse.
I woke up into another reality. I did not realise my cheeks were wet. I sighed as I wiped them dry.
“You’re right, nurse. Let’s go. I hope the cure for leukemia can be found.”
“For my sister. For Aya.”

by-sacredsword