The rain softly tabs against the window as they settle into a chair. The barista has taken their order as they glance around the room. It’s a lovely place with a couple of dark brown tables with matching seats. The bar is in the same colour but also carries different smaller things on top of it. Behind the large coffee machine is whistling in happy tones, almost in key with the barista’s hum of a song, they are certain to have heard on their MP3-player lately. Cindy Lauper’s Time After Time is an all-time favourite of this soul. They remember that the first conversation they had with the barista was about this song. Her girlfriend and she would listen to it from time to time, remembering the first time they met. The wallflower had to note down strings from their story – a very sweet story between a barista and a musician. Another day there were two art students, bickering whether Van Gogh or Jackson Pollock are a superior artist. Honestly, the wallflower knows that those two are total different styles of expressing emotions. The two complained to be occupied with this year’s exhibition. Their professor made them team up to fill the rows for the gallery. The topic was something like ‘Unrequited Love’. Somewhere amongst the lines they agreed that their professor is a very emotional guy. Of course there were more people streaming into this small place at the corner of a less visited street. All of them fed this writer with ideas for more small stories for this silken notebook.
It is supposed to be a gift for someone important. Someone who has been their muse ever since they heard their first stories. The friend, the wallflower is giving this book to one day, has been with them since they were barely children. They have loved her so fondly that people might confuse it for romance when it was always admiration. Sometimes, the wallflower thinks, their friend is a goddess. However, they never wanted to put her up on a pedestal. Not even now. This book in their hands is just a small thanks. A way of hoping to reach her heart in the way her writings have theirs.
Maybe not all the collected stories will rattle the hearts like hers. After all, they have only started to write. But the wallflower hopes that their stories are being read by their friend and that they will understand how much they mean to them. But until then – they will attempt to find the words for these characters and their lives within these pages.
© Skylar_C_R_Wolf 2023-08-13