A Perfect Pair of Polar Opposites

by Einjhel Nues, Wanniassa School

Nothing felt like mine anymore, not after you. All the little, yet big things that described me; these small sentimental values that make a person whole.

Such as my number, a combination of sixes and nines, the one you bravely asked for that day.

Amidst a crowd of people, time felt so slow as you stared into my soul. It was inevitable.

The same stare you’re giving me now, but this time with tears running down your cheeks.

How the world tore me apart that night, as I dialled your number to find it disconnected. The only sentimental thing about my number was the fact that it knew yours.

How they were connected.

Now I feel empty, like the hill at that park, the one we used to always go to. But now it’s empty, as empty as me.

1953, we started to name natural disasters so we could be reminded of their destruction; this is why I remember you.

It’s funny how it’s been long enough to forget. Yet I can still recall that night; I can still recall every word you said.

The highlight: “I miss her.”

I realised why the moon still chases the earth. It stays in such a distance, never daring to move closer, but never slightly moving on. I believe you are the earth and I’m your moon. But if you are this planet, floating in space, then your world revolves around her, like the earth revolves around the sun.

She was the never-ending motion of a spinning ballerina inside a music box; the soft ringing in your ears that you could listen to forever.

It’s peculiar how in our own love story I was still the side character.

…

Do you think of me whilst you’re driving? I wonder. Does every sign on the road beseech you to stay as you drive further away? Closer to her?

I think of you the way I see clouds whilst being inside a plane, the butterflies I get when it takes off.

I think of you as my other half, the smile to my frown, the true to my false, the future to my past. Yet it’s peculiar how different they are, but not one can live without the other.

It’s as if I were the moon and rather than the earth, you are the sun, convincing each other that the next day is worth risking. Yet we two are on opposite ends of the day, never meeting in a perpetual circle.

A perfect pair of polar opposites.