Wishes Don't Always Come True

People piled into the church, one by one, all looking at what was in front of the podium. Some sniffled, some cried, some didn’t show any emotion. But everyone felt the same thing.

Sadness.

The feeling of death was around them too. Making everyone know that they weren’t immortal and that one day, it will be them lying in that coffin, in front of the wooden podium.

A man name Hugh, in his early 20’s, laid in the coffin, his face relaxed with a small smile upon his lips. His parents decided on an open casket, those Julie couldn’t understand why.

She didn’t want it to be an open casket, why would she? She wanted to pretend this was all fake; that it was all a sick dream. But it wasn’t. It was real. Julie really had lost her fiancé.

She didn’t feel anything while sitting on the cold wooden benches. She was numb. She was cold. Thousands of thoughts were going through her head, but none of them she could really understand. They were all little static balls, rolling around in her head.

She sat there, frozen in time as people took their seat and a priest slowly walked towards the podium. His words meant nothing to Julie. He prayed and said a few words about the deceased, like he really knew him.

But he didn’t. But Julie did. She could have told everyone all about Hugh’s life. From the moment they met in preschool to the day he died in that car accident.

Julie, as a young girl, picked up a picture book, looking at the wonderful bright colors that swam on the pages. The colors fascinated her. She could have looked at that book for hours, flipping through the pages, not paying attention to what the story was even about.

But before she was able to look through the book once, it was robbed away from her.

“Hey!” she said loudly, standing up from her spot on the floor to look at the culprit.

The culprit was a boy that usually stayed on the other side of the room than her, since he thought girls had cooties.

The boy, Hugh, looked the complete opposite of Julie. Where Julie had light skin and pale blonde hair that curled at the bottom, Hugh was darker-skinned, hair black as night.

“Give me my book back!” Julie said, trying to snatch the book from his hands. But he moved too quickly, yanking it out of her reach.

“No! I want to look at it.”

“Wait your turn, it’s mine!”

“No!”

Boom.

It took a moment for Hugh to realize what had happened before he dropped the book to the ground and started to cry, holding his nose as he ran away to find an adult.

Smiling at herself, Julie picked up the book and sat back down, opening the book to page 1.

She remembered that day. It was the first time she met Hugh. They both looked back on that day often and laughed; Julie always mentioned how she made him cry.

Oh how I wish you were here and not in heaven. She thought, her throat closing up, making it hard to breathe. She didn’t know if could handle this. She didn’t know if she could watch people bury the man she loved.

Not even half way through the service, she stood, getting looks from everyone in the church.

But she didn’t feel their stares; she didn’t hear the whispers from people, telling her to sit down. All she felt was that she needed to get out of there, all she heard was a voice screaming at her to run, to get out of there and see if it was all a dream. No not a dream, a nightmare.

She squeezed herself through the people sitting beside her, yanking her arm free from a gentle touch from someone trying to get her to sit back down. She walked down the aisle, the opposite way she was suppose to on her wedding day. Her man was at the alter, not knowing what was happening around him. But then again, how could he? He was dead. He didn’t feel anything.

Not like Julie. The numbness started to fall away as she left the church, the bell on the roof, ringing, signaling it was noon. All the hurt and pain she was feeling rushed through her like a water fall, crashing her down onto rocks.

She ran, not knowing where she was going, but not caring. She was running away from her problem, from her feelings. And it was working. As she ran, all her emotions got swept away in the wind that was blowing her blonde curly hair back, pushing her black dress against her legs, making it difficult to run.

It was a beautiful day, Julie though as wind pushed her hair back. She leaned her head against the headrest, the sunny warming up her face. She raised her arms into the sky, her diamond engagement ring shining from the rays.

Hugh looked over at her, smiling with one hand on the wheel and the other resting on her thigh. It was the first time this year that it was warm enough to put the top from the Chrysler Seabring down.

“Isn’t it a beautiful day!” Julie said excitedly. “I can’t wait to lie around on the beach and get tan. I’m sick of this pale white skin. I wish I was tanner, like you.”

“I’m not tan. This is my actually skin color baby.”

She smacked his arm lightly. “You know what I mean.”

He laughed. “It’s not smart to hit the person that’s driving.”

“Oh really? And why is that?” she asked, smacking his arm again.

He swerved sharply, going into the other lane before back into his. Julie had her eyes shut, waiting for them to crash into something. But they didn’t. When she opened her eyes and looked at Hugh, he smiled.

“I told you not to hit someone while they’re driving.”

“You asshole!” She said angrily, a smile slipping through, showing she wasn’t really mad.

“You’re lucky I love you.”

“Oh really?”

She nodded.

“Well I guess I am. I love you too.” Hugh pulled the car into the beach’s parking lot. “Call me if you need anything alright?”

“Are you sure you can’t hang out with Tiff and I?”

He nodded. “I’m sorry babe; I got to put food on the table somehow.”

“I know, it just sucks that you have to work on a Saturday.”

“Well lets hope today flies by so we can see each other later.”

Julie nodded and leaned over to give him a kiss. “Bye baby.”

“Bye sexy.”

As Julie, got out of the car, Hugh reached over and gave her butt a more-than-friendly pat. She looked over her shoulder and giggled, waving as she went to find her friend on the beach.

Her body hit a tree with a loud thump; her body sliding down the rough bark of the tree. Tears flowed over her cheeks covering almost half her face. The memory of that car ride was permanently burned into her brain.

She remembered the smell of him that day. The mixture of Axe and some cologne he always wore, with a dab of sweat from their session of sex that morning. She remembered the smile that was always planted on his face, how the laughter never stayed on his lips but showed in his eye too.

She slapped the tree, the rough bark stabbing into her hand. There wasn’t any pain though, not in the physical sense at least. Julie needed release. She needed some way to get all the pain that she was carrying around with her out.

At first, she gave the tree she was leaning against a few light slaps. Then the slaps got harder until they were no longer slaps. They were punches. She punched the tree, over and over, feeling the scrapes and cuts that were forming on her hands. But the sharp pain was nice.

She let out a frustrating scream, banging her fists into the side of the tree. Blood was getting everywhere. It spilled down her arms and onto her shirt. If it was any other day, Julie would have been thankful she was wearing black and the blood wasn’t showing up but today, she wanted to see it. She didn’t know why. But she did.

The each time a part of her body came in contact with the thick tree, small flashbacks flash before her eyes. Hugh and her kissing. Hugh down on one knee proposing to her. Them cuddling after a night of sex.

Each time a memory flashed in her head, Julie punched the tree harder, hoping it would stop the memories… It didn’t.

After a while, Julie fell to the ground, leaves getting tangled in her hair and sticks poking her body. She wondered what it would be like to die right there and then.

Would Hugh be waiting for her at the entrance to wherever a person’s soul goes after they die? Or would her soul and energy just seep into the Earth, forever being just part of the ground.

Julie knew she was going to lost consciousness from all the blood lost. She was waiting for it. Inviting it. She wondered if where she was passed over, an animal would walk by and see her, thinking she was food. She didn’t care. All she wanted was to be with Hugh again.

A memory of Hugh smiling was the last thing Julie thought of before passing out.

* * *

“Julie, Julie wake up,” a voice mumbled, running their fingers through her hair.

She groaned and opened her eyes, squinting at the bright light above her head.

“Julie, can you hear me?”

She nodded, focusing her gaze on the figure who was leaning over her.

Julie wished the person would move over to block bright light.

And as if the person read her mind, they did. Their head moved to block the light and Julie was able to focus easily.

What she saw was Hugh.

“Hugh!” She was sitting up before a blink of an eye and hugged him tightly. Tears filled her eyes as she breathed in his smell. She laughed out in joy. “Oh Hugh! I thought I lost you. I had a nightmare there you died. It was the worse dream ever.”

He pulled away from her and looked down into her eyes sadly. “It wasn’t a dream Jules. I’m really dead. This… this is just a dream. When you wake up, I’m not going to be there anymore.”

“But… but I love you.”

“And I love you. But there is nothing either one of us can do. What’s done is done. You need to move on with your life. I don’t expect you to get over my death like that,” he snapped his fingers, “But I don’t want you to live the rest of your life alone. You’re too beautiful and young to do that.”

“But I only want to be with you.”

He smiled again. “You’ll find someone else. Your love for me will never leave but the pain will, and you’ll find someone else who makes you happy.”

Hugh looked up into the sky before back down at her. “I have to go now Julie. Don’t worry, the pain will heal itself.”

“But you just got here. I don’t want you to leave me again.”

“I love you Jules. Never forget that.”

Hugh placed his lips on Julies and gave her the sweetest and breathtaking kiss he has ever given her.

* * *

“Julie, Julie wake up.”

When she opened her eyes, a bright light blinded her like before.

“Julie, can you hear me?”

“Hugh?” she croaked out, squinting to see who was there.

The light dimmed and a person, a woman, stepped in her line of vision.

“No, my name is Dr. Hoag.”

“Doctor?”

She nodded. “Someone found you passed out near a tree, bleeding. They called 911 and they brought you here.”

Julie looked around her and she was indeed inside a hospital. “So Hugh’s not here? He’s really dead?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry.”

After asking Julie a few questions about what happened to her, the doctor walked out of the room, leaving Julie with nothing but her thoughts.

I wish you were here and not in heaven, she thought.

“Wishes don’t always come true,” she muttered quietly, bursting into tears as she finished speaking.