Julie
Tyler was a man with very few beliefs. He lived in a world
that he thought was cruel, heartless, and ignorant. He was the definition of a
loner, never really caring about being part of the society. A characteristic
that he’s always had. His family was gone and he did not keep any close
friends. He preferred it this way. Life was easier without the burdens of
emotional attachments. He lived a simple life, spending most of his days at
work. You would think with the amount of money he made he would treat himself
to a vacation or maybe a night on the town. He didn’t see the point in those
things however…just time wasted. “Dude, you really need to get out more...” his
coworker droned on in the lobby of the employee break room. “There’s more to
life than your cubical.” Tyler simply rolled his eyes and didn’t respond hoping
Mark would get the message and leave him alone. The last time he decided to
break his pattern and go to a bar with Mark, things ended disastrously. No need
to relive such events. “Look if you’re still pissed about the last time, I’m
sorry. I didn’t realize how much of a bitch that chick was.” Mark insisted as
if he had been picking Tyler’s thoughts. Tyler finally spoke in a raspy voice
he almost didn’t recognize, that was a common reminder to him of how little he
spoke. “It’s fine man, I’m just not in the mood that’s all.” Mark sighed and
walked away with a bit of an annoyed look on his face mumbling something along
the lines of you’re never in the mood.
Most would think that Tyler was missing something or unhappy with his life.
He’d even heard a few coworkers joking behind his back about how he should
commit suicide already. But Tyler was fine; he didn’t feel there was anything
wrong with him. He just didn’t feel the need to participate in the mundane and
redundant things that most people worried about.
Tyler lived a few blocks up the street from his job so he
tends to walk to work. It was a beautiful day, clear blue skies, warm weather,
and the light breeze was just enough to keep you from being uncomfortable. Of
course Tyler never noticed the little things, his only thought was the bottle
of Jack Daniels he had sitting on his table top and his bed. His boss had told
him to go home early and take a break…”You’re a hard worker Tyler and this
company is glad to have people like you, but I think a few days off will do you
justice.” were his words. A few days off?
For what?! To do what?! I wish people would stop trying to fix what isn’t
broken! I’m fine…I’m more than fine,
I’m GREAT. A loud screech followed by a thud, the sound of glass breaking,
and a scream immediately brought him out of his thoughts. There was a girl
lying motionless on the pavement in front of a minivan with a broken
windshield. People were already surrounding her but most were in shock, not
doing anything. Tyler ran over to check if the girl was still alive. She had a
shallow pulse and she was breathing, but bleeding profusely, he didn’t notice
where the blood was coming from. “Somebody…” he stopped to clear the raspy
signature out of his voice. “Somebody dial 911”, his voice was very calm for
someone who had just witnessed an accident. He didn’t yell that sentence like
most did, he simply spoke it as if he was asking someone to pass the salt. He
notices a woman pulling out a cellphone and he proceeds to walk away. He
figured his good deed for the day, if it could be called that, had been done. But
as soon as he tried to lift his leg he felt a gentle pull, it was just enough
to get his attention. He looked down to see the young lady, now conscious,
tugging at his pants and trying to speak. He crouched down to hear her better.
“What did you say?”
“Don’t leave me,” she mumbled before coughing up a mouthful
of blood. He stared at this young girl with tears in her eyes, so obviously
afraid to be alone. Even with the blood, bruises, and cuts…he could tell she
was attractive. Any other time he would of said he was sorry and walked away,
but it was something about this girl…he almost felt as if he owed her his
company. He sat with his legs crossed and pulled her into his lap immediately regretting
the action after he’d done it. Don’t they say don’t move someone who’s been in
an accident...what if he had just paralyzed her from the waist down or
something. “Do you feel anything? Can you feel your legs?” He was surprised at
the panic in his voice…he actually sounded like he cared. But he shook his
head, knowing that he was only trying to cover his own ass. The girl slowly shook
her head yes and he sighed in relief. He didn’t understand what he was doing,
he should leave. He doesn’t know this girl, surely he could call someone else
to hold her if she just didn’t want to be alone. “What’s your name?” The
clarity of her voice caught him off guard, she was clearly fully conscious now
surprisingly. “Tyler...” he said warily, he wasn’t too fond of giving strangers
information about him, even if it was just his name. “Tyler…where is your
family?”
“Dead…” He
had already said the word before he realized how insensitive that was to the
situation, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“I’m all
alone too.” Her thoughts seemed to trail off for a few seconds before she
continued speaking. “Have you ever been in love Tyler?” He immediately rolled
his eyes, this girl has got to be
delusional, he thought.
“I don’t
believe in love…” He answered honestly. Why not indulge her? This day had taken
a turn for the strange anyway, might as well keep it going.
“Why not?”
she didn’t sound very surprised by his answer in fact, there was a hint of
boredom to her tone. Like she had suppressed a sigh.
“It’s just
how I feel. Hey I don’t think I’m the one you should be talking to about love,
this isn’t a very good time to be depressed.” He smirked slightly, hoping she
had gotten his mediocre joke. Instead she gave him her full attention, turning
to look him in the face and repeating “why not”, no humor at all in her eyes.
Tyler sighed and was in disbelief at this random and irrelevant conversation
that was approaching. No one had ever asked him why before…and he never had to
explain his reasoning. It took him a while to figure out exactly what to say in
a way that wouldn’t be too difficult to understand and wouldn’t give away too
much about his past. He decided to keep it general.
“The people in this world are
incapable of love. They only look out for themselves. They lie, cheat, and
steal their way into their version of happiness and they don’t care how many
broken hearts they leave behind. Love cannot survive in a world that is about
survival of the fittest…a materialistic world where the only concerns are
wealth and power. It just doesn’t exist. Maybe it used to but…not anymore.
Everyone just has their own agenda.” Her smile was not the reaction he was
expecting and her voice when she spoke sounded almost dreamy with a hint of
amusement.
“You know, I
came here looking for love. Looking to start over, enjoy my life…be happy. You
may think that I wasted my time, and I almost did too. But you changed that.
You say we live in a world without love, a world where everyone looks out for
themselves and yet you came to sit here with a dying girl. A complete stranger.
He you are sharing my last moments, showing kindness and patience to me. That is love Tyler.”
“I wouldn’t
say that, I’ve been wondering why I’m doing this since the min I sat down with
you.” He wasn’t a saint, and he didn’t want to be here…she had to know that.
“Love is
what keep you anchored here Tyler, no matter how much you don’t want to believe
that. You know you’re very easy to read. You shut people out in fear of being
hurt, but you are a loving person. It’s embedded in your nature. A nature that
you’re trying to fight for reasons I will never know. And that’s fine but,
don’t think for a second that you’re fooling anyone. Everyone can see that ‘I
don’t care’ attitude that you wear so proudly is being forced.”
“You don’t
know me” He tried to tone down the edge in his voice. This girl was out of it
and he had to treat her as such. “You don’t know what I’ve experienced; you
don’t know what my life has been like.”
“I know I
would have loved you. I know I would have tried my best to earn your trust. I
would have treated you with kindness and loyalty, because I know that all you
need is to be shown that it is possible. I would have shown you that love is
possible.” She stared at him with such intensity in her eyes that he knew she
was fully aware of what she was saying. Not “out of it” at all. The most
surprising part to her words however, was the sincerity behind them. She didn’t
blink, she didn’t look away, she stared right into his eyes and smiled. Her
lips were dry, chapped, and almost the same color as her teeth because of the
lack of blood in them…but her smile was still beautiful to him. She honestly
believed that she could have loved Tyler and despite his better judgment… this
caused him to believe her too. The icy and protective shell that he wore around
him most of his life shattered and a wave of emotion washed over him. Suddenly he was aware of everything: the sun,
the blue skies, the light breeze, the audience of awe stricken spectators that
he hadn’t realized were watching them, and the medium sized piece of glass
protruding from the girl’s abdomen. His eyes had been opened, but nothing
surrounding him mattered. All that mattered was that he didn’t want her to die
now. Of course he never wanted her to
die but now…somehow, he needed her. He wanted so badly to be with her, to walk
with her, to know her. He thought that if there was a God, how he could be so
cruel as to send him what could have been the love of his life at the time of
her death. How could this situation possibly reestablish his beliefs in anything?
“Tyler...”
He looked down at her ashen face; they were practically sitting in a pool of
her blood. “I’m sorry that I came to you too late…but If I can’t leave you with
love, at least let me leave you with hope. You’re a good man Tyler, and you’re
very capable of bringing love back into this world. As long as you have hope, you will find love
again. I promise.” He could feel her pulse weakening and her breathing getting shallower.
Her eyes slowly began to close.
“Wait!”
Tyler shouted, shaking the girl now, refusing to let her go before answering
his own question. “Wait! …What’s your name?!” Silence. “What’s your name!?”
“Julie” she
whispered, before falling into a deep, peaceful sleep.
A few weeks
later Julie’s estranged mother was packing up the girl’s belongings in her
apartment. She hadn’t seen her daughter in years and the news of her death had
left her heart broken. On her way out of the apartment she noticed a sticky
note on Julie’s refrigerator. It was a ‘to do’ list, written on the day she
died. There was only one sentence under the words To Do:
Make a difference in someone’s life.
