by Aisha Urooj
We walk to our homes, hand in hand after our sweet exchange. Ellie is over the moon when I tell her...and also slightly jealous. I am amused by her revelation that she is jealous of my first kiss. She reminded me shortly that hers was with a "icky nine year old neighbour at a cousin's birthday party during a game of truth or dare when she was eight." She says that I am so lucky that I got to share my first kiss with someone I wanted.
I suppose it is lucky to share the first kiss with someone you really like, no matter at what age you do.
Chapter Four: Soup Kitchen
Ellie and I are not exactly what you will call 'studious', but we try our best and do put serious effort into our school assignments and homeworks.
For our creative writing assignment, we are given the topic of 'Plight of the Homeless' to write on and we decide to help each other with the four-page essay. As we sat together in the public library, brainstorming for hours, we only manage to come up with a few ideas to write on. As we looked at each other's progress, we realized that we needed a different approach as we had only filled two-thirds of a page between the two of us, almost half a page for me and a few lines for Ellie. Our slow pace was becoming a problem as the deadline for the assignment was fast approaching.
"Argghh...why is this so hard to write about?", I say frustrated.
"Yeah...it is hard", says Ellie, scratching her head.
"I don't know...I guess we should consider ourselves privileged if we can't even write about what it feels like to be poor!"
"Cassie....you just gave me an idea! Maybe we need to see first hand and experience it ourselves?"
"Ellie, I don't know if my parents would let me become homeless, even if it is just for a short while and for good grades."
"Not become homeless, silly! I meant we should do what great actors and writers do for a role and go to the place where they can see real people for themselves. We should volunteer at a homeless shelter!"
"Good idea! We could do that....but we should do it quickly though, the assignment is due soon."
That weekend, Ellie would sign us both up to volunteer at a soup kitchen and we arrive at the location early in the morning.
"Hi! Are you Ms. Carla Smith? I am Eleanor James and this is my friend Cassandra Grace. We both signed up to volunteer this weekend."
"Yes, I am Carla Smith. Thank you for showing up on time. You are assigned to the kitchen today, you can go find the chef in the kitchen. He will let you know what you have to do."
Ms. Carla is a petite woman, dressed formally, with an serious expression on her face and cuts an authoritative figure. Her tone suggests that she is angry about something, I look at Ellie and she just shrugs her shoulder. We both go to the kitchen to look for the chef and find him to be in a better mood than the soup kitchen manager.
"Oh my, I have two little fairies helping me out in the kitchen today!", says the chef, who looked like he belonged in the North Pole and could pass for Santa Claus.
"Are you Santa?", asks Ellie and I smack my head at Ellie's predisposition of saying out loud what she thought.
The chef laughs,"People often call me Santa, but you can call me Mr. Chris as well!"
"Ok, thank you Mr. Chris! What would you like us to do?"
Mr. Chris assigns us to mopping and dusting duties at first and laughs heartily when Ellie asks for the Roomba. We quickly learn how to use the feather duster and mop and sweep up the place with an eager fervor.
Next, we are assigned with prepping the vegetables and Mr. Chris had to save me from myself, as I nearly enthusiastically chop my fingers off with my knife while cutting the carrots wildly. Ellie had thought that my tears were tears of joy and gratitude at being saved from grievous injury but I had already been crying because of the onions.
After we are done with the vegetables, Mr. Chris assigns us to the sink to wash the dishes. Between the two of us, we breeze through cleaning the dishes and making them shine. Mr. Chris now has run out of tasks for us to do.
"You girls have done everything and are still asking for more work?", laughs Mr. Chris. "Now only the cooking is left in the kitchen, which you can leave it up to me. Tell you what, go find Carla...I am sure she can use the two extra pairs of hardworking hands."
As we go searching for Ms. Carla, I secretly hope that we find the soup kitchen manager in a better mood by now. We find her and she crossly and abruptly assigns us with distributing food to the incoming soup kitchen patrons. There are all types of people coming in need of food, some are young, some are old, some are with little children. It is eye-opening experience for both Ellie and me and we stand quietly handing out slices of bread to each plate as they are brought forward. A frail looking man brings forward his plate and asks me for my name and I am too startled to say anything back. I can see his clothes are torn in places and dishevelled. His hands are also trembling but he has friendly and kind looking eyes. I quickly hand him out four slices of bread instead of the two that we are instructed to do. I see Ms. Carla come stand next to me and I am worried that I would be told off for my action.
"It helps if you see them as people", she says shortly. "It wouldn't hurt if you could talk with them a little too."
She leaves after saying this and I am left feeling red-faced and ashamed.
"That is not fair!", says Ellie. "You get shy around new people Cassie...that doesn't mean that you are being a snob or something like that. She doesn't even know you well!"
"You are right Ellie but Ms. Carla is normally like this...don't feel bad about what she said Cassie", says a familiar voice. I look up to see that it is John, smiling kindly at me. "I think that she is more mad at herself than anyone else amd wishes that she could do more for the people coming here....though I don't agree with the way she does it, I myself prefer Mr. Chris' attitude..but she herself has been volunteering here since she was a teenager and been working here longer than anyone else. The people coming here are always grateful for the help."
"I didn't know that you volunteered here John?", I ask surprised.
"Did you come here for an assignment too?", asks Ellie.
"Assignment? I come here to volunteer sometimes as I like talking to the people...there are some veterans who come here too and I like hearing about their life stories."
After we are done helping with distributing the food, John takes us both to meet some of the people. We spend the remainder of the evening listening to the people who share with us snippets about their lives. Some of them are suffering from mental illnesses, others are having a tough life after a failed business and some are battling substance addictions. One thing is for sure that for the people coming to the soup kitchen, life is a daily battle for survival. At the end of the day, Mr. Chris joins us from the kitchen and gives us volunteers a plate of sandwiches to share. Ellie and I both thank John and Mr. Chris for showing us how to give something back to the community and to them for making a positive difference to the people around them.
We volunteer for another day at the soup kitchen and after that we would often return to do so at least a couple of times in the year.
As for the assignment, we both receive good grades for our essay submission. My essay titled 'It helps if you see them as people" was well-liked by our teacher and she said that I captured the snapshot of peoples' life with clarity and empathy.
Ellie was profoundly impacted by our volunteer experience and years later, as a famous movie star, she would donate a portion of her paycheck to the same soup kitchen that we had volunteered at. Ellie said that upon receiving the check, Ms. Carla, the seemingly stern soup kitchen manager, had been moved to tears and had given her a hug. I guess John had been right about her.
Chapter Five: Winter Wonderland
Winter is Ellie's favorite time of the year. If she had been mother nature, she would have turned all her lands into a winter wonderland, the trees would have had ornaments of ice sparkling like gems in the sunlight and the streets would have been blankets of soft, fluffy snow all year lon
g. She even loves the warmth and cheer of the crowds during the holiday season and would often drag me to our town's mall. I would rather do anything else in the whole world than to be at the mall during the holiday season or before a snowstorm.
I hate the bleakness of the cold weather and I would rather avoid places where there are tons of people. Call me Ebeneezer, Scrooge or Grinch, but I don't like exchanging gifts on Christmas and would rather spend the time with my loved ones than go look desperately for a gift with other equally desperate gift searchers in the mall. I guess I just don't have the patience for it.
It is the day after Christmas and Ellie wants us to go to the mall to look at the sales.
"Didn't we just receive gifts on Christmas? Why do we need to go to the mall to get more stuff?"
"Cassie...you are missing the point, it will be fun. Everyone will be there!"
"Exactly! Everyone will be there. How would that be fun?"
"It is so nice to see people being happy at this time of year. We can talk to them about how their holidays went. Exchange stories about the food and gifts."
"Can't we do that at school? after the holidays, when they will have even more stuff to tell..."
"You really don't want to go, do you?", says Ellie laughing. "Still it is not as bad as last year when you faked a flu."
"It was a flu! I was really sick!"
"Cassie, you sneezed like once and had no fever. Ok, if you don't want to go to the mall, can we at least go to the park. I want to see the snow! We actually had a good snowfall this year."
Thinking that the park would be without the crowds, who will all be flocking to the malls today, I agree to go with Ellie out in the cold weather. The park is nice and quiet and we really did get a lot of snow this year. We kept walking in silence in the ankle deep snow, with only our footsteps echoing in eerie quietness. We walk til we reach the section of the park that borders to the ravine, I start to turn back but Ellie insists to keep going.
"Just a little more further Cassie, I want to see the trees in the ravine...they will all have snow on them."
"Ok Ellie."
We walk to the edge of the ravine and see a wintery landscape open before our eyes. The sun shines at the exact moment to reveal a vast white landscape with snow-laden trees, the snow reflecting the sun at some points and glittering like an white ocean. At that moment I realize the quiet but breathtaking beauty of winter. So this is how Ellie saw it, I think to myself.
We stay there admiring for a while longer then start to head back towards the park but Ellie wants me to see one more thing before we leave, hidden in an open space between the tall trees is a spot where the sun is shining and rising above on the ground is an angel made of snow. The snow angel figure looks so mysterious in its surrounding that I look at Ellie in amazement.
"Look Ellie, there is a angel here! How did this get here?"
I look at the statue and it looks divine in the snowy backdrop, two hands clasped to each other as in prayer and wings spread open wide behind the shoulders. The details in the angel make it seem almost lifelike, with the delicate feathers etched in the snowy wings and the details in the angelic face. I look closer into the statue and see two green eyes looking back at me.
"It looks so life-like Ellie, the angel even has green stones for eyes...I would have thought angels would have blue or violet eyes, isn't that how they are in paintings? The eye colour is so unusual but the statue really looks lovely here. What a nice thing to do by whoever that made it...", I add.
"So you like it? It's for you, it is your christmas present Cassie. Surprise! I know you didn't want a present this year, even though you gave presents yourself but it wouldn't had been fair not to give you something in return."
"It is beautiful Ellie! I love it...but how did you make this? I didn't know that you could sculpt with snow.."
"It wasn't me, I just helped keep the surprise and keep you distracted from someone."
"Me distracted? From who?"
"Merry Christmas Cassie! Did you like the surprise?"
I turn to see that it was John who was the mysterious sculptor.
"John! It was you...I never could have imagined it."
"So what do you think about the angel? I made the eyes the same color as yours Cassie."
I blush deeply and barely manage to thank both John and Ellie for their gift. "Both of you kept this a secret for me? What a wonderful present. Thank you..."
I am deeply touched by their gesture and as I thank them, I become emotional and start to cry. Both Ellie and John collectively groan at the sight of my tears.
"Oh Good Lord, she started her tearworks! She must have liked the surprise..", says John laughing.
"Careful Cassie, you tears might flood the snow angel and melt it away!", adds Ellie.
"Very funny you too! Let me cry... I am so lucky to have you both in my life!" Both Ellie and John beam at my words and smile as I give them a hug.
"Merry Christmas Cassie!"
After taking some pictures together with the snow angel, we walk back home together. We left the snow angel as she was by the ravine, bathing in sunlight. There she continues to look at passerbys with her green eyes, waiting to surprise anyone else who went there to admire the wintry landscape, the frost-covered branches, to enjoy the beauty of the season.
Chapter Six: Vive L 'Amour
Valentine's day was fast approaching. Ellie would always make a big deal out of Valentines. I have to admit, I was fond of the pink hearts, teddy bears, chocolate filled, red roses infused love bomb confetti of a holiday as well. It was hard for me to feel surly that day, whether I was single or not. The worst I would feel was wistful, looking at the loving couples and wondering when it would be my time for love. The best I would feel would be like this valentine with John.
Ellie's efforts on Valentine's would always become, as she said: "extra resourceful and full of spirit and cheer." She plays secret valentine on February 14th. She thinks I don't know about it but I figured it out. Each year, all the girls in our class would receive a single rose in their lockers from a "secret admirer." I know that Ellie does it to spread around the love, to make the girls feel the magic of the day and not feel lonely, to look forward to that rose no matter how their valentine's was going.
Usually both Ellie and I would walk to school together but on that day, she would make some excuse. A flu, a missed alarm, a missing shoe or a last minute early morning class meeting that I wasn't invited to despite being in the same class. Each excuse more elaborate than the other.
With any scheme or diversion that she could come up with, she would arrive earlier than me in order to play cupid. Despite her early start to the day, there would be something amiss if she did not dress in all pink or red, from her clothes, her accessories to her shoes. She really was spirited about Valentines.
Ellie wondered for weeks what John had planned for me. I on the other hand, despite having a loving boyfriend like John, hadn't thought about it. I was too busy thinking about the excuse Ellie would make this time to miss our walk together to school. But John wasn't distracted by Ellie's annual odd and secretive behaviour around Valentine's as I was and he would get me something.
He finds me alone in the hallway before class. He shyly hands me a small box and I look at it with curiousity. My emotions get the better of me and I panic and say that I didn't remember to get him anything. He laughs at the thought and presses me to open his gift. I open the box to find a pair of small earrings twinkling with two little red glass hearts. They are beautiful. How could he be so romantic? I wondered how I would thank him.
"Do you like them?"
"Yes I do, I like them very much. They are so pretty!"
"I am glad you liked them Cassie."
"Thank you John...", I say, trying to find the words that would describe how much he meant to me. "I...I...am glad that I didn't run away from you..", I end lamely.
"I am very glad about that too", jokes John.
"What I me
ant to say is that I haven't felt this safe to be myself around anyone before. I feel extremely lucky to be with you."
"Cassie....I feel the same way." He pauses. It looks like he wants to say something more... but he doesn't.
"I really.....like the gift. Thank you so much", I say, chickening out, when I really wanted was to tell him how I felt about him.
I still felt like a toad for not getting him something for Valentine's too but I put aside my guilt to tiptoe up and kiss him softly on his cheek, seeing him blush and smile made me feel slightly better. I start to head for class but John isn't ready to let go of me yet. He pulls me in, bringing me closer to him for a kiss and I gasp in surprise. He then kisses me even harder, holding me tight like he had never held me before and I melt into his embrace. His kiss clearly tells me what he had wanted to say before.
Although the three little words remain unsaid between us, it seemed like at that moment it was on both our minds.
I walk into class feeling like I was floating on air.
Ellie sighed happily when she heard about this. She lives for these moments. One of the reasons why she wants to be an actress is to play romantic roles in movies. And to kiss the hottest superstar...that is her life goal too.
Years after high school, Ellie would continue the tradition of celebrating Valentines together. She would hold an all girl's day, usually close to valentines and each year she would end the day with a toast: "May we live for love and may Love live among us. Mortality weeps for her frailness, Love marvels us with her strength. Love laughs eternal! Vive l'amour ma chérie, Cheers!"
Chapter Seven: Smile in the Face of Sweet Sorrow
My romance with John didn't last long in high
school, life can sometimes be cruel that way.
