Day 24: The coin

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise."

Brian and Rebecca was born into two houses next to each other. Brian is nine months older than Rebecca, but the two has been growing up together like siblings. Everyday, they would run along the beach, screaming at the top of their little lungs and chasing the sun as it plummets down the horizon. It’s beautiful, but it’s not always the quiet journey for them.

               Rebecca is easy to tear up. Everytime, the little girl enjoys her chase for the sun, and everytime, she loses the track of it over the horizon. She thinks she loses the light on Earth. She starts crying, with drops after drops of tears floating over her bubbly face. She lies down on the beach and bawls for what seems like forever.

                She will keep on crying until he gets on his knees beside her and put his hand on her left cheek and says “Let’s play a game!” Of course she cannot resist that temptation

“Rebecca, here’s a coin,” He takes a shiny silver coin in his pocket and waves around her eyes, “I’m going to flip this, and if it’s head, you’re going to stop crying. If it’s tail, I’m going to lay down here and cry with you.”

It is head. She stops crying.

Everyday, she cries.

Everyday, he pulls out the coin.

Everyday, it’s head.

And she stops crying.

They grow up to the age of twenty, and Rebecca is no longer scared of the light disappearing in her life. But she still comes to him every once in a while, crying as if she was five. Each time, he pulls out the coin and flips it. Each time, she stops crying.

               But she finds herself numb, her eyes red and her tears flowing into a river when she heard that her best friend is diagnosed with blood cancer. Her fragile heart feels like it stops beating, instead it explodes into million pieces and each sharp piece tears apart every tissue that is inside her. The first time she visits him, she looks at his exhausted and lifeless eyes, she cannot stop herself. She throws herself into him and hugs him tightly, tears again rolling on her bubbly cheeks.

               He pulls out the coin, and her watery eyes catch the only familiar object that she’s ever known.

“Same rules, right?” He said, “If it’s head, you have to stop crying.” He flips it and the coins rotate in the air for seemingly forever before landing on his hand. It’s head again, like countless times before.

               Soon after, Brian couldn’t hang on and lose his fight. At the funeral, everyone couldn’t stop crying, except her. She walks along the crowd that is heading to his final destination. She couldn’t cry. Her heart was pierced into pieces and her eyes were exhausted from all the tears she has for him. She sits next to his grave with her eyes still wandering somewhere over the horizon. His mom comes up and give her polished black box, with a piece of paper that read “To Rebecca” attached on top. She opens the box. It’s the one object she’s even known: the coin. She picks it up and looks at it for the first time. Her tears drop again to the ground. The coin escapes her fingers and spins on the ground. There was never a tail…

The sun plummets down the horizon...