My pappa started the engine. I opened my window. I held out my hand and Poppy took hold of it. As I gazed into her face one last time, she said, “I’ll see you in your dreams.”
“I’ll see you in my dreams,” I whispered back and reluctantly let go of her hand as my pappa drove the car away. I stared back at Poppy through the rear window, watching her wave, until she was out of sight.
I held on to the memory of that wave goodbye.
I vowed to hold onto it until that wave welcomed me home again.
Until it once again stood for ‘hello’.
Rune
Oslo
Norway
A day later I was back in Oslo, separated from Poppy by an ocean.
She and I talked every day for two months. I tried to be happy that we at least had that. But as every day ended without her by my side, the anger inside me built. My hatred for my pappa increased, until it broke something inside, and all I could feel was emptiness. I resisted making friends at school, I resisted doing anything that would make this place my home again.
My home was back in Georgia.
With Poppy.
Poppy didn’t say anything about my change in mood, if she’d even noticed. I hoped I’d hid it well. I didn’t want her worrying over me.
Then one day, Poppy didn’t return my calls, emails or texts.
Or the next day, or the next.
She dropped out of my life.
Poppy simply vanished. No word, no trace.
She left school. She left town.
Her family all upped and left without notice.
For two years she left me completely alone on the other side of the Atlantic, wondering where she was. Wondering what had happened. Wondering if I’d done something wrong. Making me think that maybe I’d pushed her too far the night before I left.
It was the second moment that defined my life.
A life without Poppy.
No infinity.
No forever always.
Just … nothing.
Poppy
Blossom Grove, Georgia
Present Day
Aged Seventeen
“He’s coming back.”