2
Elijah was an orphan.
With him gone, I had to handle his affairs.
He must have foreseen this day.
He’d made a will, meticulously arranging
<
everything.
>
He said he loved children, so he donated his
savings to an orphanage.
He said he didn’t have a family, so he
bequeathed his properties to the state.
He said he had unspoken loves in his life, and
death gave him the courage to express them.
He even remembered the kindness of a girl
who’d given him fruit at the office, though
they’d only met a few times.
But he left me nothing.
Not a single word.
As if the years I spent with him were
insignificant.
Meaningless.
Like a lifeless puppet, I mechanically
completed all the arrangements.
Then, in a bookcase, I found an old laptop.
In a folder I accidentally opened,
were countless pictures of a girl.
く
Heather, our high school queen bee.
He named the folder “Daisy.”
Daisies symbolize hidden love.
I counted, nearly in despair: 520 photos.
They hadn’t interacted since high school
graduation.
I opened the photos; many still had visible
social media watermarks.
The earliest picture was Heather’s curtain call
from the freshman orientation show.
The latest was her wedding photo.
Suddenly, I understood that Elijah’s new song,
“Heather,” was for her.
One lyric went: “Every day without you, I toss
and turn, unable to sleep.”
It was his way of confessing his love to the
world.
And it explained his “wishing her happiness.” My heart felt like it was being squeezed, a
throbbing, unbearable pain.
<
At the end of the photos was a document.
It chronicled his secret crush on Heather,
starting from freshman year.
It was ridiculous. Heather started bullying him
on the first day, mocking him for being a
country bumpkin, cornering him in the
bathroom to throw cold water on him, having
people beat him up after school, tearing his
clothes, forcing him to do her homework,
making him run errands for her snacks…
And I, seeing his suffering, repeatedly saved
him, helping him return to a normal life.
He never mentioned it.
He only talked about the day Heather gave
him an umbrella in the rain. He felt like the
world had stopped, the noise fading away,
leaving only her beautiful back.
That was the image that captivated him for
life.
Even his pursuit of a singing career was
because Heather, while tormenting him, saw
the lyrics hidden in his notebook.
She read those, to us, embarrassing and
sentimental lines in front of the whole class.
She defiantly told him that stardom wasn’t
something any Tom, Dick, or Harry could
achieve.
And instead of feeling humiliated, he only
wanted to reach the top so she could see
him.
My eyes felt hot. For all these years, I was
just a joke.
Not even worthy of a name.
My hands trembled as I read Elijah’s last
words.
“If there’s a next life, I’ll be brave.”
Tears blurred my vision. If there were a next
life, I would absolutely never interfere in their
affairs again.
Go chase your true love!
L
