[[*Endless Road_______Endless Journey]]*

Thursday, March 10, 2005

[[The Last Chapter XIX]]

"Hmm...this piece should be here rather than there..."

It was the second day that Jaime had been dedicating to the jigsaw puzzle. He knew he was spending too much time on it. There wasnt another person he knew who would need more than a day to finish piecing a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle together. It was not entirely his fault though. The only jigsaws he did was those 50-piece ones when he was a kid.

"Oh dear. Where's the last piece?"

Nothing can get worse than losing the last piece of a jigsaw. Stay calm, Jaime thought. It had to be somewhere.

He looked around his bed, below his pillow, under his soft toys. No signs of a coloured pieced of cardboard. The package was his last hope. He had emptied the pieces on his bed. If it wasn't there he would be dead meat.

Jaime slowly opened the box, praying hard that the missing piece was left in the box. He could barely dare to look...

"Phew. It really is inside. So lucky..."

Jaime could finally heave a sigh of relief. He placed the last piece into the jigsaw. It was not complete and ready to be framed. He took a short while to admire the complete jigsaw. It looked so much more beautiful than the printing on the package.

Mickey and Minnie sitting by the river watching fireworks. It looked so sweet and romantic. It all seemed like a wonderful dream. Him and Celine, sitting by the river watching fireworks...

~~~

That night wasn't a particularly memorable night for Jaime. He met Celine to pass her the jigsaw puzzle after she finished work. She didn't seem really excited to receive the present, and Jaime couldn't get into what Celine was so preoccupied with the whole day. He wished they could talked about other things, but it was her birthday and he didn't want to look like a wet blanket.

Though he accompanied her on the train ride, Jaime didn't get to send Celine home. He had already felt weak, tired and powerless to persuade Celine.

Throughout the vacation, both of them hardly had much contact. Jaime had started to feel himself being very drained with life. Sometimes, he felt too tired of carrying a torch for Celine. It had been two years, yet things had remained stagnant. He wished so much to move on, but his heart refused to.

Not a day passed by without him missing Celine. There were times when he spent hours reading her messages that he kept in his handphone. There were times when he would just stare blankly at her photo in his wallet. Each time, his mind was flooded with so many memories, whether good or bad. Somehow, tears would just fall unknowingly. Jaime never liked to cry, but it was simply not within his inner control.

Jaime knew he was losing time. There was only a year left before they would graduate. He found it hard to imagine what life would be like after these three years. With each passing day, he grew more afraid of graduation day. What would his life be without Celine?

Perhaps he would forget her one day. But what if he couldn't?

~~~

*the iron wall*

[[Walking Alone On This Endless Road]]*|8:43 pm|