SongBird by Haley Barnett

Note: This is the end of SongBird.

 

 

SongBird

 

            At my next opportunity, I gave Sara a visit. I'm not crazy, lots of people go and visit with dead loved ones. And in my crazy life, Sara will always be a loved one, even if her brother is a crazy self-centered ass.

 

            Because the town that I live in is so small, and because I have never nor will I ever own a bike, I walked all over town looking for the right flower shop that sold the right flowers. Now, there are at least 5 or so flower shops in this small town, and I can never remember which one has the flowers I'm always looking for.

 

            And of course just my luck, the shop that I am looking for is right next to the cemetery. Just my luck, really. When I walked in the store, to my immediate right, in the display case thing, were the flowers I was looking for. As I am looking at the flowers trying to find the price of said flowers, I hear this gravelly voice behind me speak.

 

            "A dozen is $125." said gravelly voice tells me.

 

            I spun around, finally noticing the person behind the counter. "The flowers you were looking at, you want them?" he asked me. I could only nod my head. "$125 for a dozen. And before you say anything, we are having a sale, 2 for $25."

 

            I start going though my wallet, wondering just how much I had on me. All I had was $55; which was not enough to buy a dozen. "So by that logic, I could buy 4 and it would only cost me $50?" I asked just to reinforce what I knew, or thought I knew.

 

            I left the shop with $5 and 4 sunflowers in hand. As I walked up the path to the cemetery, I waved to the guard person who tells you where to go. By the time I got to Sara, I wish that I had asked Cliff, the guard, to lend me his golf cart. That hill was steep, and the sun decided that it would shine extra hard that day.

 

            When I finally sat down in front of Sara, I set 3 of the 4 sunflowers on her grave, and began to tell her about everything that had been going on. From my emo face, to Brandon and I trying out for the talent show, to us getting in.

 

            When the sun started going down, I said my goodbyes and left. I said goodbye to Cliff, and I decided to catch the bus, because mom and grandma don't like it when I walk home in the dark. I used my last $5 for bus fair and I was off. On the bus I found 2 empty seats next to each other, and set my sunflower down next to me. People may have been staring, but I did not mind one bit.

 

            From that moment on, or at least from the moment I got home, I devoted all of my time to singing. I wanted to make sure that Sara's memory was a good one and I thought about noting else. Well I thought about my grades, but I wanted to be the quiet girl in the back of every classroom that said nothing, but was still valedictorian. I sang every where, in the car, at school, in the shower, doing homework, witch was bad because I would sometimes write down what I was saying instead of what I was thinking, and anywhere that I could sing. I once tried in the town library and I got kicked out for being to loud.

 

When the day finally arrived, I was wearing this long, old fashioned dress from the Sweeny Todd area that showed off my lack of boobs very well. It was brightly colored and my hair was teased for the show. The only problem was that Brandon was nowhere to be found. I pulled my phone out from my boobs and call him for the millionth time with in the last hour. He still would not answer his phone, and my anxiety was getting worse by the second.

 

            "5 minutes." This lady tells me.

 

            I can't go on, I just cant. Not without Brandon, I need him for this. But the Gods are against me, as it seams and I will have to do this on my own.

 

            I walk out on to the stage and I grab the mic and calmly explained to the crowd that there was a change of plans. I walk over to George, the wonderful pianist, and tell him the change of plans. When I got back the stage and the mic, I waited for George to cue me. When he did, I sang like I had never sang before in my entire life. It was powerful, it was beautiful and it was still from Sweeny Todd.

 

            When I finished, I had silence. Then, in an up roar, the crowd cheered. They were cheering for me, not some idiot that had slammed into some other idiot for something stupid. It made me feel like a star.

 

            When I got back stage, mom and Dr. Truid were there, both with a bouquet of flowers in their arms. Grandma was there also, but she just hugged me and said that she was proud of me and that Sara was smiling down on me tonight.

 

            The rest of the school year went by smoothly. Because of the song I sang, Green Finch and Linnet Bird from Sweeny Todd, people who never knew my name started to call me SongBird, because I can sing really well and I sang a song about birds. Creative. I did end up being the valedictorian and when I gave my speech, I made sure to mention Sara at least 4 or 5 times. She was that most important person in my life, but she was just not there, so I brought her there.

 

For graduation, mom and grandma bought me a PT Cruiser convertible. It was used, but it was mine and I had no intention in letting that and the fact that it was a small ass car put me down. And for about 2 weeks, I had nowhere to go, nothing to do and I was bored out of my mind. All I could think about was Dennis. I really missed the guy and, as realization donned on me, I finally had a chance to go and see him.

 

            The next day I packed up a bag or 2, hugged mom and grandma goodbye and I was off. The road was beautiful, I hadn't seen anything like this since I came to this town all those years ago. I stopped in so many towns that I felt like I was out of my mind. My first real experience was trying to work a laundry mat washer and drier. Not as easy as it looks.

 

The next real big thing was that when I reached the mountains, the fog was lifting, as it was around noon, and I poled over and looked at the sides of the mountains in awe because the fog was stretched over the trees like stretched out cotton balls. Everything in the mountains was so beautiful that I didn't want to leave. But I did.

 

            About a week into my trip, I was sitting in a Dennys with a map out trying to find the shortest route to California, but the shortest was though Arizona, and I so did not want to go there. That place is nothing but bad luck. And when I gave in and drove through the God awful state, my car stalls.

 

            The ass that was my mechanic said that it would take 3 days to fix. I knew a little something about cars, and I knew he just wanted my money. So 5 DAYS later, I was off. About 5 or 6 thousand dollars were wasted, but I was off, and happy to get out of there.

 

            By the time I had reached California, it was midnight. I stayed in a motel, and slept till noon. When I woke up, I changed in record time and went off to find the place I had once known and loved.

 

            When I had found said place, it had been 3 hours. Cursing my lack of memory of this town I had grown up in, I got out of my car and locked the doors. I say this because if I hadn't, then someone would have broken my door off when the speed by. Because I saw someone across the street. A very handsome someone. I knew then in my heart that he kept his promise.

 

            I ran across the street, with out looking both ways mind you, and glomped Dennis then and there. He was in shock for about 10 or so seconds, but then snapped out of it and held me close. And trust me when I say this, I haven't let go since.