Paradise

It was simultaneously the most perfect and the absolute worst day of her life. Grass tickled Eden’s ears and toes, extending green and fresh around her body. Cerulean skies stretched endlessly above her, promising a bright future, if only she stayed. Stayed here, where the loudest sound was the hum of bumblebees buzzing from purple clover to purple clover, and the air was scented with honeysuckle and lilac.

She inched her hand across the grass until it found another. Fingers intertwined, interlocked, and held tight. If only that was enough to keep her there.

“Do go,” the voice beside her whispered. Pleaded. Begged.

The grass and sky blurred together in a haze of green and blue, distorted through a lens of tears. If Eden could stay in this garden, in this life, she wouldn’t hesitate to live forever in this paradise. But the choice wasn’t hers to make.

“You can visit me in New York,” Eden croaked through her tears. She turned to smile at Madeleine, on perhaps the last day they would ever spend together. She saw her own misery reflected: tears dripping from soft brown eyes, so innocent, so hopeful, so adoring.

“No I can’t.” Madeleine spoke the devastating truth. Her family would never afford the trip. “This is goodbye.”

She kissed Eden for the first and the last time.

It was simultaneously the most perfect and the absolute worst day of her life.