I want you back
I was cleaning up over the weekend, and came across this - my first love story. Written when I was in ninth or tenth grade if I remember right.

True to my style, it's overly dramatic. But then, hey, maybe life *was* more dramatic then. You know how when you're a kid, when everything's worth crying for or laughing at. And then, how you 'grow up', and it becomes less so. And how life begins to lose all sense of drama, until it becomes cool to pretend you've seen it all.

But wait, I digress. Here, is the piece. Unedited and unabridged.



The rumble above my head arrested my attention. Normally, the sound of an airplane would have raised my adrenaline. Being a pilot myself, I could almost feel the vibrations of the engine through my body - but now... now it was just a herald of despair.

I shuddered. A few more minutes, and she would be in one of those. She was going. The biting air of the airport seemed to make it worse. 'Dreaming as usual, huh Dreamy ... huh, huh?' she laughed, poking me gently. My eyes met hers. Those big, beautiful eyes.

'Hey Su ...' my voice trailed, 'you ... leaving...'

'Is that a question or a statement?' was her reply. My Su - she knew what I was going through and was trying to get me to laugh my way past it.

She was right (my God, how many times have I told myself that?). I tried to smile - my labors could only manage to pull up the ends of my lips. In an attempt to hide the poor display, I cupped my hands at my mouth, blowing at them, as if to keep them warm.


'Hands in your ...' she stopped. 'No, I wasn't biting my nails', I flushed. She was the person who had made me; she knew me and constantly worked on me... Oh Su, and I going to miss you!

My hands reached my coat pocket instinctively. I felt something hard - the gift - my gift to my Su. 'Listen', she broke my thoughts, 'I brought you something'. She delved into her bag and got out a tiny parcel, all wrapped in a blue cover.


She remembered everything - even my favorite color. 'From me to you'.

I smiled. I hadn't wrapped mine, but well, I knew I would be forgiven for it; especially when she found out what it was - a cassette, furnished with a player, earplugs and all. The reason I give priority to the cassette is because it was there where my gift lay - suppressing no thought, no feeling and no emotion, I had told her all. Impressed on that cassette was ninety minutes of my heart.


'And from me to you', I repeated, whisking it like a magician. I saw her face light up. 'Hey', she said, throwing her arms apart invitingly. I held her tight - God! Don't let anything pull us apart.


I felt her gasping for breath. 'Su, you alright?' I enquired scared.
'Yeah, yeah ... you worry too much', she laughed, playing with my nose.
'You take care ... especially there' I pleaded.


In the background, the loud speakers echoed the words that had haunted me for many a sleepless night. 'Tell me I can go', she said quietly. 'Gonna miss you', was all I could manage.

My smile had faded and so had hers. 'Me too' she replied simply, looking at me one last time in the eye. She moved slowly, waved...



When I regained my senses, I was standing alone, hand in the air. She was gone. Slowly, I retraced my steps to my car.

As I reached for my keys, I remembered her gift. I opened it carefully.

Inside was a battery. She had a strange fascination for this particular one. 'It keeps me alive', she had explained. 'And from when do tube-lights start using batteries?' I had joked, evading the pillow she had promptly thrown at me. Those days were over now, and life would be different without her.

But something was amiss... something about the battery. As the truth dawned, I whizzed around to look for her. I had forgotten to put batteries for my cassette player.


Souls, they say, come in pairs. Their lives entwined, they are distinct... yet incomplete without each other.