FicWad

Remembrance

I met her in a coffee shop.

I was a tired undergraduate student, seeking solace from the endless reports and work I had to do. I didn't really mean to go inside the small, almost-cramped place, really, but I had gotten lost and it was the only light through the whole street. Also, I desperately needed coffee. That was when I first met her.

She wasn't beautiful, yes, but she could be called pretty, in a way. With big brown eyes, an almost frumpy figure and long, stringy brown hair, she was, in a word, plain. Yet her smile seemed to the lit up the whole room in it's intensity, and her innate cheerfulness and optimism made her beautiful in my eyes.

She introduced herself as Rem, and told me that she wanted to be a biologist. "On what?" I asked, curious despite myself. The papers I meant to research for laid abandoned on the small wooden table. I knew that I had to do it, but she... Rem was too interesting to ignore. How could a girl like this exist in the slums that we call our capital city? It's quite... odd, to say the least.

She wanted to be a Plant biologist.

"An engineer, you mean?" Plants are machines; they're not living things, not in my knowledge, at least. Biology is the study of living things.

"No, no. A Plant biologist, because, you see, Mr. Alex, Plants are alive."

It turned out that her father was a worker on one of the Plants around the planet, which supplied us with energy now that our natural resources are almost all gone. He had taken her to the place, and she had realized, to her shock, that Plants are alive. They were living things, she explained, sitting down across me, smoothing her waitress apron almost self-consciously. They have thoughts, feelings, and needs.

"They aren't just things that we manipulate into giving us energy, Mr. Alex."

I felt ashamed that I had once thought that, even though I have no idea just why. It seems quite ridiculous, her theory, but I had no doubts that she was right.

I changed the subject, then, feeling that I had a lot more research to do other than just my work. I felt, in that single moment, that my work seemed so insignificant, that it had no meaning. My major was to Law; I wanted to be a lawyer, yet I had always excelled in the Sciences. This girl, this plain, mousy-haired girl whom I had just met, had almost changed my whole worldview in that single meeting. And I didn't even know her last name. How ironic.

I began to visit that dingy little shop every night since then, just starting various conversations with her. Sometimes they're simple, mundane things, such as the various customers she had met during the day. Sometimes, however, we had great debates about everything in general and anything in particular. Plants, however, was a pet topic of hers, and we spent many, many hours discussing about her theory, and the effect it would have in the world. I found out that her name was Remembrance Saverem, that she had two brothers, Vash and Knives. I wondered, slightly, at the sanity of her parents. I told her that, and she laughed. It was not a musical, silvery laugh as one would imagine, but more of a low, almost coarse chuckle. I loved it when she laughed, when her eyes disappeared beneath her cheeks, as her smile grew even wider.

It was then I realized that I was falling in love.

I panicked then. I had crushes, yes, who didn't? But I had never felt the type of love I had for her, the type that made me dream of a little house by the sea and a white picket fence. It was silly, of course, for what house by the sea would have a white picket fence? Ours will, I decided, smiling slightly. That is, of course, I sighed then, that she accepts me.

I would really like to say that I had asked her for a date, confidently, and had been prepared. However, I don't like lying, I really don't. In fact, I stammered, fumbled and fidgeted for an hour, before, in the middle of an engaging conversation on the current political situation...

"Wouldyouliketogooutwithme?" I blurted.

The look on her face was one of utter shock. I thought that I would die right then, of embarrassment. Wishing so hard for the floor to swallow me up, I nearly missed her simply reply.

"Yes."

We began with slow, stumbling steps, almost like a toddler, walking carefully and deliberately. We were careful of each other's feelings, and spoke hesitantly. It seemed that the carefree debates that we had shared had disappeared, and was replaced with what seemed like a pair of strangers who were trying too desperately to be lovers. I was unhappy with the situation, yes, but I was too much of a coward to voice it out. Silly, isn't it? I could go up on stage to present to hundreds, but I was utterly useless when it came to emotions. It could be because I have a Y chromosome, I suppose.

Rem was the one who pointed out the flaws in our relationship, to point out that she wanted our previous camaraderie, our easy flow of conversation back. Silently applauding her bravery, her easy admittance of her own emotions, I agreed.

We had three blissful years together, one of which was spent in Project Seeds. We knew that the planet was dying, that space might be the only hope for humans. We had worked so hard for the Project, and it was not even half-completed. I had hoped that we could have finished it together, that we could reach space together, but...

Blood is seeping from the wound on my chest. It is a fatal wound, administered by a man convinced that Project Seeds would be the downfall of Earth. At least she was safe; the police had sedated the poor man. I do not blame him. Through her, I learnt that it was better to forgive than to hate. I smiled at Rem one last time before closing my eyes, her tear-stained face the last thing I'll ever see.

Remembrance...

End