The Girl Who Never Grew Up

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"It's a secret. I haven't told anyone about you, I promise," I told a girl who was kneeling beside my death bed. Her eyes were still deep blue and her hair was still dark brown. Over the years, time withered me away, but she stayed just like that. Just like the girl I met 75 years ago when I was 15. When she was 15.

"You need to let me go," I told her, as she held my hand and sobbed. I never knew what kept her young. Was she immortal, or an alien? All I know is she told me to never tell anyone about her. Time passed, she became my guardian. Telling me things I couldn't have noticed, guiding me through life. She made me who I am. She taught me to live life, not just survive it. She was always my true friend, a friend no one could have. I breathed heavily; I had known for days that my time was coming to an end. A precedented end that we knew about. But the girl kept her head down, tears flowing down her cheeks. 

"An old woman like me ought to go some time, right? Please, let me go, honey," I consoled her, keeping my shivering hand on her head. She looked up, wiping away her tears. She got up and sat beside me, keeping her hand on my forehead firmly, but lovingly. She told me that she was okay. She was okay with me going away. 
She was a child. A child who found happiness in everything that happened to her. A child, a past version of myself. 

When a child loses her mother, she becomes precocious. I lost the child in me my mother died. But that day, I found the girl. The girl who has lived with me through every day. The girl who taught me to enjoy life, to be happy about everything. The girl who was the child in me.

The girl who was my childhood, who was my younger self.




Author's note: As the old lady laid on her death bed, she finally understood that the imaginary girl who guided her through life was the child in her. She taught her to enjoy life, not to get lost in a race to fame and success. This story reminds us to not forget the child in us. It tells us that sometimes, the path that keeps you happy is the right path, after all.

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