Girl In The Winter's

Girl In The Winter's
Chapter 3



The sun had not yet appeared when Ayumi began walking up the haiking area in Stanley Park, wearing his thick red jacket, he continued to walk up the mountains, not caring about the cold weather that began to puncture his skin, with only accompanied by mp3 songs in his iponen he walked faster through the forest.


He paused for a moment just to raise the volume of his ipone connected to the earphones in his ear, he did not care about the warning that appeared on the screen if the volume had already passed the safe threshold, all he wanted was to eliminate the voices of women who claimed to be his mother's friends, but unfortunately the voice of Chris Martin could not beat the voice of the woman who was still ringing in his head.


"The last nine years your mother began to feel pain." Ayumi still remembered word for word from the woman when she told her mother.


"At first your mother thought it was just common pain." Ayumi replaced the Cold Play song with the song Avenged sevenfold louder, she hoped that the voice of the vocalist's Shadow shout when singing the song little piece of heaven could better muffle the voices, but apparently it didn't work.


"Until four years ago your mother found out she had leukeumia" Ayumi kept walking through the trees of western red cedar and hemlock, which stood firm, looming, he increasingly sped his way up the occasional run as a red tinge of sunlight began peering behind the giant trees. He paid no heed to his increasingly breathless breath, he continued walking quickly hoping to leave the woman's voice far behind him, but unfortunately the voice was like a shadow that kept following him.


"But it's too late." Ayumi almost reached the top, with breath and feet that began to ache he continued to climb the rest of the haiking track that was getting uphill.


"The only way to save her is with a spinal cord transplant." Adam Lavine's distinctive voice had already begun to replace Shadow's voice when he finally reached the top.


"But unfortunately there was no matching donor, until finally a few months later your mother gave up and she died." Ayumi tried to catch her breath while reaching the top, the view that showed the sunrise on the Stanley beach below could not distract Ayumi from the woman's last words.


Not the sadness he felt when he heard his mother's death but the disappointment over his heart, he did not care if people would consider him cruel or unfilial child, what to mourn? There was not a single memory of his mother that he could remember. For twenty-one years of his life he never once met his mother, only one photo and story told by his father that formed the figure of the mother who accompanied him grew.


A while Ayumi stood up while adjusting her breath, a wisp of steam was seen every time she took a breath indicating that the morning weather was very cold, her white face was getting pale but her nose and lips were reddened, after his breathing returned to normal he climbed onto a large rock and sat on it. His eyes looked away at the vast ocean, but not with his mind that would not be separated from the figure of his mother who was now gone. Two years ago when he decided to look for his mother far away to the land of people, his only desire was to prove his mind wrong all along. The thought of feeling abandoned by her biological mother even though her father was always angry every time he uttered those words, his father always said that his mother loved him very much only the situation and condition that made him have to be separated from the child he had born.


But is there no desire for her mother to seek her? Doesn't his mother want to see him? Hugged it? Or just looking at it from a distance? Did his mother's heart really hate him just because he was a mistake in his youth? Hey, keep in mind who made the mistake was his mother and father, but why was he blamed and punished? Ayumi's eyes looked at the group of seagulls that flew around the beach for food or just sunbathing, she was envious of the birds that flew freely without the slightest burden, without any evil thoughts of his mother gnawing away at his soul, he took a heavy breath just to lighten the weight that was pressing down on his chest.


These past two years he has been trying to reconcile with his mother, looking there - here the figure he has not met just to stand in front of him and loudly saying, "Mom, "Mom, I'm your daughter Ayumi, do you remember? You gave birth to me and then you left, but I don't have to worry even if you're not next to me because Dad has educated me and raised me well. I purposely came to meet you, don't worry, Mom, I won't demand anything I want just... yes, at least for the rest of my life I met once with my mother, not just from my photos and memories, because it seems impossible for me to wait for you to find me. I just want to apologize for being your burden all along, although it is not my fault I was born in this world, but it is okay I thank you for giving birth to me into this world, and ma'am, I forgive you for never being present in twenty-one years of my life."


But now that those words evaporated as news got out about her mother, was it so impossible for her mother to meet Ayumi, until she went to a place she could not go? Ayumi took a deep breath and threw it away slowly, hoping that the cold air of the morning could clear her mind of the things that were bothering her.


The sound of camera shots made him jerk, immediately his mind and focus returned completely to where he is now. Ayumi looked around looking for the origin of the voice, until she found a tall man with a blue jacket coming out from behind a tree, she squinted her eyes trying to recognize the figure that was walking towards her. The man slowly recognized the approaching figure, the man he met every day at the cafe, the man whose name was John yelling at him here. Erik. The man again took some pictures with his professional camera ignoring Ayumi as if he was an invisible creature.


Realizing that Ayumi turned her eyes back to the front, then put her earphone back on after she had previously removed the object when she reached the top, he gasped when he realized how loud the sound came out of the tiny object, as fast as lightning he shrank the volume and the melodious sound of Chris Martin back in his ears whispered the poem Magic song.


For how long he sat in silence enjoying the view of the beach and the garden below befriended the melodious sound that came out of his earphones when he realized someone had been sitting beside him on the rock. Ayumi glanced at the figure of the man in the blue jacket who was staring straight ahead into the expanse of the blue sea, as she had done from earlier.


"Beautiful right?" The heavy voice belonging to the man broke the silence between them, Ayumi took off her earphones while cuddling in agreement.


"Yes." Yeah." Ayumi looked back to the front where the sun had started to emit golden rays.


"Did you come here often?" The man was now focused on looking at the black haired girl.


"Not so often," Ayumi smiled as she answered the question of Erik who was still staring at her.


"Only when you ran away?"


Ayumi gasped at the man's words, for a moment she fell silent and only stared at the dark eyes of the night who were still staring at her with sharp eyes, but there was a gentle glint inside that spot that made him think that he could trust the man.


"Yes, just while running away." Ayumi bent her legs and pulled her knees into a hug, she leaned her head on her knees while looking at the man beside her.


"Are you running away too?" Erik laughed at the round-eyed girl's question.


"I've seen me at UBC, are you an art student?" Ayumi stood up while stretching her body, followed by Erik who immediately jumped down from the top of the rock, she stuck out her hand to help the girl down, at first Ayumi hesitated and only looked at the helping hand waiting for her but finally Ayumi received the saying and then with the rest of the sturdy hand she jumped from the rock.


"To be more precise, teaching, I'm a lecturer there," Ayumi stopped her steps and looked at the man in disbelief.


"You, lecturer?"


"Yes, don't I deserve to be a lecturer?" The man looked at Ayumi amusedly, the man's lips twinkled a slanted smile and Ayumi only realized that the man had dimples next to his cheeks.


Ayumi continued her path down the hiking area, "Well, I'm sure that you'll be the student's favorite lecturer there." Erik smiled at the words of the little girl who was now walking beside him.


"Not really, they call me an ice sculpture."


"No way," Ayumi widened her eyes while laughing in disbelief, the handsome man beside her, the owner of the seductive smile was nicknamed the ice sculpture? That's not possible, is it?


Erik just smiled as he nodded, they continued their way down from the hiking area, "And you're a medical school student?"


"How did you know?"


"John told me that."


Ayumi laughed when she heard her magical friend mentioned.


"Yes, I'm a medical student."


"Do you want to be a surgeon? Or maybe a pediatrician?" Ayumi was silent for a moment before answering that question.


"No."


"You mean you're not going to take specializations?" Erik slightly frowned hearing the girl's words.


"I mean I don't want to be a surgeon or a pediatrician." Ayumi was silent for a while before continuing her remark, "I want to become a forensic expert."


Erik turned his eyes in disbelief at what he heard, "You want to be a forensics expert?"


"Yes." Yeah." Ayumi continued to walk away from Erik who was still gaping in disbelief, at this time he had arrived at the place where his bike was parked. He was already preparing on the bike with earphones back attached to both ears, his hands nimbly play his ipone looking for a song to accompany him on the way to the cafe where he worked, he said, this time he was accompanied by Tailor Swift.


"Tell me why you chose to be a forensics expert?" Erik had been standing next to Ayumi's bike while watching the girl who was ready on the bike. Ayumi removed her earphone so that Erik would repeat his question, he fell silent for a while before answering the question.


"There's no particular reason, at least they won't sue me if my stitches are bad," He casually reassembled his earphones and began to drive away leaving Erik still silently staring at the girl's short answer.


Erik laughed after noticing the answer of the girl who had now started to drift away, without a second thought he lifted his camera and took a picture of the back of the girl in a red jacket pedaling a bicycle in the middle of a cold Vancouver morning atmosphere.


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