Paper Lights

Paper Lights

There was this place hidden deep within the forest, it was an abandoned cottage. When they first stumbled across it they laughed about how it may be haunted. However, when they walked through its arched doorway they felt at home. In the middle of the floor there lay an old antique rug, now layered with dust. On the fireplace were a few left over knick knacks and the very atmosphere of the cottage created a sense of comfort. They decided this would be their place!
***
Every chance they got they would meet at the cottage. Allison would bring decorations and Eric would bring tools to help spruce up the place. They could not light the fireplace so instead Allison would light candles within paper bags. Sometimes they would stay out there until the early morning just relishing in one another. Their favorite part of the cottage was the upstairs loft. There was just enough room for a few pillows, a blanket, and their bodies wrapped around one another. That is where they first uttered the words I love, it was where they decided to make love for the first time and eventually the place they would say goodbye.
In a few weeks Allison would be moving away. Her parents had decided to move to California some 2,600 miles away from the cottage, the place they'd come to call home. Both of them lay heartbroken in the loft that night. Silent tears streamed down their faces. Eric whispered a broken sob "we were suppose to be forever". In that moment Allison reached for the razor blade in Eric's toolbox. In the wood surrounding the loft's window she wrote.

"Forever; as the words etched in this grain
So should our love remain
And though by miles we separate
We shall be together again some day

Love is not for the weak, but those who fight
Do not fear for I will return to ignite
When the stars are out and they sky night
Here is where I will burn a paper light"

***
It had been 737 days since Allison left North Carolina but still every night Eric walked the scattered path to their cottage. Many times he thought he might give up but something always dragged  him out into the wood. He missed her, as if a piece of him had been ripped off. If only he could hear her voice he thought. Though he knew that once he heard that sweet musical tone of hers he'd only long for her more. Sometimes he thought he might hop on a plane and go search for her down the crowded roads of San Francisco, but her parents hated him. An Indian girl, especially their Indian girl would not love a white boy.
***'
On day 742 he drifted through the woods slowly. In the sky he saw a brewing storm and nearly turned back, but alas he kept moving toward the cottage. He thought of the words etched in the wood; forever their love would remain. He believed in those words with all his soul. As the rain began pouring down he picked up his pace. He was almost to the cottage when he saw something -- something flickering in the distance. He started running, racing for his life. When he came upon the cottage he stopped. Rain pelted the ground around him and he could not tell the difference between it and his tears. There in the loft window it was shining! What he longed for every day for over two years. Yes there in that window was a symbol of hope in the form of a paper light!

-MAGGIE V.