If you go away …

 

 Tony slowly comes closer,  he has a backpack and he smiles and looks at her …

“If you go away on this summer day, then you might as well take the sun away.” Lara! We are together again. How wonderful!

And now for the surprise of your life, it is in the bag! Sorry but be patient, I have something to tell you before the great moment.

Do you remember that ugly little twit sitting in the front row in the maths class? He had only three things on his mind; sin, cos and tan! And you? That blond blue-eyed head girl that all adored!

After school when walking back the long way to the children’s home on the other side of the railway, I always saw your dad picking you up at the front gate in that huge black BMW.

Lara, then once a week you caught my eye and will ask something like, “Tony, you on your way? Can I help? Ready for matric farewell?”

Matric farewell? What a joke, paid by whom?

I went off to the war, we never heard of each other, then your letters came week after week. “Please do not write to my home address, sent it to Annie else my dad will kill me.”

You shared so many things, you asked advice, and you were always there.

Almost a year later the landmine exploded and I returned from Angola … everybody asked, “Tony! How does this feel? Do you cope?”

Not you, one day you were just there in the military hospital, “Tony, get on your feet and quickly, I have work for you to do!”

You bought the computer and I coded morning noon and night in that little back room in Woodstock, we sold our system worldwide and our business flew through the stars, all without your dad knowing anything!

Bought my luxurious apartment in Upper Bantry Bay, you came Sundays and pushed me up and down Signal Hill, we laughed and laughed.

Then … that subtle knock on my door that Friday evening. You came in, a bottle Grand Mousseux and two boxes from Debonairs in your hands!

We laughed … you put your face in my neck, I touched you. Your hands cuddled me, you told me, “If I stay I'll make you a night. Like no night has been or will be again!”

You stayed the whole night, our minds, our bodies and our souls met, we went through the stars!

Every week you came … over and over the doors of paradise swung open for us …

We donated fortunes for others like me, without legs and children without a home, we changed the world.

When that dark cloud rose, you just wiped it aside, “Stupid doctors, what do they know anyway?”

Lara you are an ANGEL!

 

Now for that great moment … Lara Pearson, it is 19 October, your birthday … it is in the backpack ... hold your breath …”

 

(Tony goes on his knees and slowly extracts a bouquet of red roses. He puts it on her grave, he cries and cries …)