Spirit Between Friends

The sound of the paper pages being turned was louder than it should be. Sam picked up each page gently, but the emptiness of the room made that sound echo. A harsh reminder of what her life is now. A book in her reading chair next to the window with the sun shining in, and a gentle breeze caressing her hair used to be what she did to relax and find peace. Now each turn speaks of her loneliness.

Past the breeze and the birds outside, a low humming noise can be heard. As it grew louder, she placed her flower bookmark into the pages and closed her book. As her fingers left the bookmark, she felt the wear over the years. It reminded her of the forests where her and Amy would spend their afternoons off. The sun shining through the leaves, hitting the magical circles they would make from a book she got at the library that day.

They would try to talk to all sorts of spirits, gods, and essences. There was a bark skinned spirit to help them heal the forest. A woman with a necklace of blue roses who would help keep their friendship strong. A dark eyed spirit who would keep them from being alone, but Amy thought it was a demon that fed on loneliness. Sam’s favorite was a charismatic bear that made food taste better. Amy’s favorite was a group of yellow spirit critters that made your jokes funnier. Amy was convinced that one was real by how much Sam would laugh after the ritual. Sam was just too nice and wanted Amy to think it worked because she loved her laugh.

Those memories left as quick as they came. The book closed, pulling her back to reality.

The sound was one she used to be more familiar with, a delivery drone. Sighing, she stood up and went to the door, ready to go through the recipient authorization procedure. While this was better than signing for a package where the signature pad wouldn’t work at all, and the pen seemed chewed up somehow, this was visual and audio confirmation.

The drone would do a quick scan to see if there was a human receiving the package, and then say “Package for Mrs. Brickwater. Do you accept?”. After the process, the drone would say “That’s a RAP” and fly away. The delivery company thought that was clever using the initials for Recipient Authorization Procedure as the catchphrase.

Sam was dreading the RAP because first, why did she marry into the name Brickwater? What kind of name was that? Second, she would just be reminded how she is no longer Mrs. Brickwater. Just, Miss Brickwater.

The divorce wasn’t angry or malicious. There were no bad feelings at the end between her and Nicolas. In fact, there were no feelings. Sam would ask herself what’s worse? Angry feelings at the end, or no feelings. Just a void. The feelings you had for someone would have just changed if you were angry, but no feelings at all after spending years of your life with that person, how did that work?

Sam realized she was rubbing her finger where the ring used to be. She shook out of it and walked to the door. She heard the sound of something hitting the porch. She opened the door and noticed the drone was quickly flying away. Sam called out and waved to the drone before noticing it wasn’t a typical delivery drone. Those were blue and this white silver color that would blind you if the Sun hit it the right way. They also had six propellers in a hexagonal shape. From what she could still see, this one looked brown and duller. It had 3 propellers, but it was one large one on top like a helicopter, and the other two were smaller on the sides in a vertical position. There were also small leaves occasionally falling off the drone, as if it went through a tree. It was weird but she was thankful she didn’t have to do the RAP.

She looked down and saw a medium sized brown box. The package looked to have this design and marks like grains in wood. She smiled as she bent down to get the box. When she touched the box, she felt her finger stabbed and pulled back, putting her finger in her mouth to nurse it. What was that? Felt too big to be a needle, but definitely wasn’t a blade. Carefully she knelt down to the box and noticed it was actually wood, and the stabbing was a splinter from the box. The engraving on the top of the box said “For Sammi Only”. No address.

She picked up the box, looked around, and went back inside, locking the door behind her.

Sammi was what some friends called her growing up. No one in her life recently ever called her that. Not even Nick. The “I” looked dotted with a heart. That was either very sweet or very creepy. She couldn’t decide which, but she is leaning more toward creepy given the current situation. She examined the box looking for any other markings or where she can open the box. Sam couldn’t help but notice how incredibly smooth the box was. It felt like silk it was so smooth all over the box. She realized while her fingers were grazing the box, there was no tape or seams. How did this box open, if she could even open the box. So far it seemed like a block of wood. Why?

Samantha left the box on the table near the window while she left for the kitchen. Most of the house is empty but she had to have something to get this splinter out. She needed to walk away from that for a minute to clear her head and process what was going on.

She found tweezers in the “whatever drawer” in the kitchen and removed the splinter. The “whatever drawer” was filled with “whatever” that they felt could be useful to have in the kitchen but didn’t have an actual spot or kitchen function. Hair ties, scissors, rubber bands, staples, stationary, matches, rubber cement, three different kinds of tape, and an eraser shaped like a koala.

Sam performed the surgery on herself, cleaned herself up and went back to the box while shaking her hands dry. She packed the towels already and couldn’t find the paper towels. As Sam went back to reexamine the mystery box, she noticed something small on top of the box where the sun was hitting it. When she got closer, it looked like a little sprout growing from the box. When she touched it with her still wet hands, the water was drawn into the plant and the box.

The water looked to go through the plant, into the box, and darken the grains that then began to move and shift into words:

“Your Life Will Open Me”

“What is happening?” Sam asked quietly. She was scared, but, intrigued. “Your Life Will Open Me”? What did it mean? Sam held the box. Her fingers grazed the sides unconsciously as she went deep in thought. Her eyes started to feel heavy, slowly closing. She sat in the chair, still holding and stroking the box as her eyes closed. She had a small smile. She felt peaceful.

Her skin started to feel warm. She could smell the woods all around her. A leaf fell on her hair, then shoulders. Sam’s eyes shot open and she was in the forest again. It felt too real to be a dream. But it had to be a dream, right? She was in her near empty house just a minute ago, so this couldn’t be real. She didn’t care though. Sam loved the forest. She missed it so much.

“It’s been years since I’ve been in this forest.” Sam stopped from what she just said. “Wait, THIS forest? I…. I do know this place. This is…”

“Sammi? You need to come back to me. Take this.”

Sam turned around and saw just a silhouette of a woman in a dress with her arm extended. The Sun was behind her, shining through her auburn hair and green dress. Sam reached out to this woman and a blue rose was placed in her hand.

As she looked down, everything started to fade. She looked up at the darkening woman and said “Amy?”.

“I still love you” were the fading words from Amy. If that was Amy. It HAD to be!

Eyes wide open, Samantha is sitting in the moonlight with the box in her hand. The sprout had opened into a blue rose, just like in the forest.

“Your Life Will Open Me”

What did it mean! Samantha needed to go back to the forest. She needed to get back to Amy. Her eyes started to fill with tears as she remembered Amy’s last words. “I still love you”.

“I love you too, Amy” Sam said out loud as grasping the stem of the rose.

“Ouch!!!” Sam screamed as one sharp thorn pierced her hand. The rose stem was connected to her hand through the thorn, pulsating as if it was drinking her blood. Sam screamed, and pulled away in fear, trying to detach the plant from her. After one piercing scream, she forced the plant off of her and the box fell to the floor.

Silence filled the room for what felt like forever. Sam could hear and feel her heartbeat all over. Except, it wasn’t her heart. The pulsing was coming from the box at the same rhythm as her heart. The box started to glow faintly in the moonlight. Then it opened.

“Your Life Will Open Me”

The box folded open, and then folded again. It kept folding until it was flat on the floor spreading out in a long line. It started to grow up with leaves, stems, ivy and wood until a door and its frame were in the middle of the room.

Sam walked up to the door and pushed on it gently. As it opened, light started to come through and illuminate the entire room she was in. She shielded her eyes until the light died down. Through the door she saw the forest she was just in. Amy was there, arms wide open, the most beautiful smile Sam had seen in long time.

“Sammi!” Amy shouted.

“Amy!” Sam shouted right back at her. They ran to and hugged each other tightly. As Sam started to let go to ask Amy if this was real, Amy held Sam’s face and kissed her the way they never did, and always wanted to. Tears coming down their faces, they both said “I missed you” at the same time, and laughed together.

“Come on.” Amy said. “Lets go and finally be happy and live the lives we wanted together and not be lonely anymore.”

Sam turned back to the door, wiping the tears away from her eyes, to say bye to her old life so she could be with Amy again. The door started to close and take the worries away, along with her favorite book. She thought, “That’s fine, I’ll be ok without it.”

As her eyes adjusted to the sunset in the forest, through the door someone was there in her chair. She panicked. “Who’s that!” Sam squinted and it looked like… her. It couldn’t be her. She’s in the forest now with Amy! She stepped back towards the door and stumbled on something beneath her. As she looked down, she noticed one of the circles her and Amy used to draw. She know this one and froze. She looked up and saw herself in the chair, eyes closed, smiling, as if she is having the most amazing dream one could ever have.

“Amy? What’s happening?” Sam asked when looking back at Amy’s darkening eyes.

“Sammi, my love, I promise, you will never be lonely again.”