All that is precious, can be held in a bell

As promised, here is my short story I've been working on. Mind you, if you're used to my normal style of short story, this one is longer then those.


All that is precious can be held in a bell
The young man couldn’t believe the stranger when he had made him an offer on a night at his lowest. A chance to leave, leave without anyone important remembering anything important about you. The young man felt he had no one like that anyways, but gave the old man consent to do as he wished. A list was handed to the old man before he left the window ceil, gleefully laughing into the darkest night. The young man packed some things into a bag, and prepared to leave in the morning before the sun had risen, he didn’t want his mother and father to freak out over a stranger in their house, if they did in fact lose their memory of him. He planned his trip accordingly, marking places he would travel, things he wanted to see all in a notebook he stashed in the bag. Upon the hour of the young man’s leaving, the old man returned to the window ceil, with seven jingling bells in his hand.
“With this, you can leave without any regrets, no one on your list will know who you are, or that you’ve existed at all. You’re free to leave” The old man said cheerfully as he handed me the bells. I could feel the warmth in the small metal, like a living beating heart.
“These are the holders of the memories of your family, your friends, and the girl you love. They will return if they hold them respectively, and disappear forever if they’re lost. You can turn back, or press on forwards, it’s your choice.” The old man smiled as he suddenly disappeared from the ceil. The young man slowly trekked down the steps of the quiet house, being careful not to wake the residents. He placed the bells in his old cabinet, all lined in a row, with a note to each person, in case they were to find them. The young man didn’t want the bells to become lost, or destroyed, but hopefully left un-found in room that no longer belonged to him. The young man let himself out the back and stepped into the cold air of the night and began to walk down the street towards the direction of the airport.

Three weeks later, much of the family and friends had not changed. They had some mysterious and strange questions pertaining to a young man they didn’t know, but other than that, they just continued on as if nothing happened. They often passed by a room they knew to be unoccupied, but felt as if they shouldn’t open the door to. They sat and had dinner every night, wondering if something felt off, but quickly chocked it up to a lack of dessert. The young man’s presence and memories went forgotten as they continued the first month since his absence.

On the same token, the young man’s friends went about their daily lives, unaware of his absence. Their heads always turned as they laughed at jokes they didn’t know the origin of, or when talked of subjects they hadn’t known they were taught. They laughed openly into the preceding months as if nothing had ever gone missing.

The girl whom the young man had fallen in love with hadn’t changed much either. She hadn’t really loved him in the first place. She often looked distant, as if pondering about the empty spot on the field as she turned back to have a Frisbee fly over her head. She kept expecting to see something or someone lying in the open sun, resting before he jumped back into the game. She figured after a while, that it must be her imagination, and she resumed her focus as she swatted the point shot away.

The young man smiled as he found himself in an apartment in the country of Japan. His job was steady, he had a place to live, and he was close to the country side where he would often take walks, soaking in the colors and the long hills that flowed like the ocean. The young man found himself to be happy, he carried the burden of the memories of what he had left behind, but he found his way to something that could make him smile. He wondered if anyone had found the bells in the cabinet back at home, but quickly shook away the thoughts as he sat down to eat dinner before retiring to bed.

Two years passed by like this, life flowing in the usual manner, and many of the questions that had confused the mother and father and the sister had been forgotten. The mother and father had grown slightly older, and the sister had graduated, now starting the first years of college. She was packing her bags to move into the dorms when she realized she couldn’t find something. She tore up most of the house looking for her plushy she wanted to bring with her. Walking up the stairs, she stopped in front of the unoccupied room, and stared at the white door. She felt as if she shouldn’t go in, but as she cracked open the handle, the door popped open. She entered the room a saw the dust gathering on everything in the room. Her eyes skimmed over the bed and the dressers, the T.V and the mini-fridge, pausing just long enough to ask herself who the owner was. She searched high and low for her missing plushy before pausing in front of a cabinet. She pried it open and peeked inside. Finding it bare except for seven bells and seven pieces of paper, her eyes quickly darted to the one labeled with her name. It stated to touch her bell before continuing to read this page. Her hand slowly reached out to the metallic object, before lightly touching it with her fingertips. Suddenly, she felt electrified, her head suddenly burned with the images of a young man with a sad smile, a young man that had accompanied her from the beginning of her life, to the recent years of her high school career, and then disappeared. She gripped her head as she picked herself off of the floor, grabbing the letter and continuing to read her brother’s last message before he left.

Dear sister,
I’m counting on the fact that you won’t find this, but if you do, touch the bell I’ve left in front of this note. If the old man was correct, then you should have the memories you’ve forgotten, memories you didn’t need. To be honest, I really wanted to see you grown up into a young bustling college student, and congratulate you as you carried your diploma. But I now realize that I’ve been quite the hindrance to the family and to you. I wish that these bells could have remained forgotten, but if you’re now burdened by the memory of me, then at least know that I’m not there to plague you further. Live a happy life, be prosperous. This is your chance in life to obtain happiness, so don’t stop running towards your goal! I know you can do it.

-Best wishes

She sank to her knees as her memories flashed in her mind, up until the very last question she received, inquiring to the status of her brother. Her eyes overflowed as she curled up on the floor, overwhelmed by her forgotten brother.

The mother and father found the sister soon after she regained her memories. She refused to go to the college she had planned to travel to earlier, and settled for a college that was closer to home. She handed the letters and the bells to her mother and father, and soon they understood why. Memories of their forgotten son, memories that made every object in their house make sense. All of the books, the games, the clothes that had no origin, suddenly told their story to them. The empty seat at dinner suddenly couldn’t be filled with dessert, and they sat in silence in the young man’s room, looking out his window at the sky.

Upon the finding of the bells, they compared letters and found out that only the “correct owners” could activate the memories stored in them. Each letter was handed to the young man’s friends soon after finding their location. They had long since split up, colleges driving them to far lengths across the state. Each person upon touching the bell regained their memories of the young man, before realizing how much time had passed by since his leaving. It had been almost three years since he had left, leaving a gap in their memories wider than any distance that had separated them. They set about in a frenzy, tears steaming along their paths as they rushed to find any clues as to his whereabouts.

Word eventually got to the young man’s love, whom was also a friend of his sister. The sister was torn as to what she should do. Even she didn’t know the woman’s feelings for her brother. The woman hadn’t fallen in love with anyone in the past 3 years, for reasons even she didn’t understand herself. She was often found lying out in an open field, staring at an open skyline. She couldn’t quite place it, but she felt as if something was still missing. The sister walked up to the woman and handed her the note, but withheld the bell before asking her a question.
“Do you love anyone?” She murmured, clutching the bell to her chest, savoring the soft click it made.
“If you mean right now, then no, I can’t speak about the past, because I just can’t remember” She says out right, thinking back to the strange feeling.
The sister hands her the bell, her face hidden behind her bangs. The woman took it in her palm, and soon followed the images and the memories. She gazed back at the now empty field she was on, and recalled the games they used to play. She became painfully aware of the memories of the games that had passed without him trotting on the field. She had to admit, that she hadn’t “loved” him at the time of his leaving, but rather felt he would always be there. Suddenly, the woman glanced at the spot she had inhabited on the field, tracing his favorite spot, which surprisingly enough, had become hers as well.

A few more years pass, and the young man finds himself back in his home town, gazing at the places he had left behind. Shops had changed, or stayed the same and the buildings that he had left unfinished, now stood tall and proud amongst the landscape. He sat down in a familiar mall, with a soda in hand, and gazed at people passing by. He spied many people from his school days, and he smiled as they toted small children behind them. He places his cap on before continuing to his journey. Upon reaching the parking lot, he catches a familiar scent, as he walks by a woman his age. His eyes water at his remembrance of his first love, and he quickly adjusts his ball cap to hide his tears. He glances back as he continues to walk, with his eyes in shock. It was the one he had left behind, the one without memories of him. Figuring she was still without, he turned and continued his walk towards his car.

The woman found her way to the mall. Since she had recovered her memories, she had spent the last few years waiting for his return. The information his friends found showed his family and anyone else, that he had made several plane ticket purchases in his absence. He had traveled the world, from Europe to Australia, and settled in Japan, before dropping off of their map for 3 years. But yesterday, they received an update, stating that he had purchased a ticket headed home. They devised to have everyone split up to places that he would likely be or visit. The woman walked around the mall for a few hours, remembering trips to it with him in tow. She couldn’t believe that he would just up and visit home like that. She remembered his letter to her, and the time she spent reading it, over and over till the sun disappeared. She unfolded it from her the inside of her purse, and gazed at the lines on the page that had been engraved in her mind.

To you, whom I hold the dearest,
I know you won’t be reading this, just like I know you don’t share my feelings. I wanted so badly for you to see me for me, to love me. But I don’t think fate had it written out for us to live happily ever after. I couldn’t make you smile, or give you a laugh, or give you anything worthwhile. You probably have met someone worth something to you; someone you can love freely, for thinking of you happy is the only way I could leave. I truly hope that you’ve finally become who you want to be, with who you want to be with. Your happiness is my own, I don’t need anything else. I just wanted to thank you for the memories, for all of the smiles, I know you don’t remember them, but I hold them close to my heart, and they keep me alive during these grey, grey days. I pray for your eternal happiness.

-Good bye

Her eyes watered like always, before folding up the note and placing it back in its proper place. She had cursed him at first for leaving such a selfish note, not knowing whether to cry because she had forgotten him, or because he had done all of this because of her. But she understood why he had stood complacent at the time she had seen him last. He had confessed once before, but she turned him down. She had a funny feeling, being confessed to by a guy, and had settled it to “friends”. She hadn’t realized that he still loved her, or how deep it really ran. She sighed as she checked her watch before deciding it was time to make another round around the mall before calling to check in.

The young man had finished touring the high school he had at one time attended. He smiled as he stepped into the band class he had loved so much, and had grown so attached to. He left as the afternoon bell tolled the completion of another period of arduous studies. He traveled to the only spot he had yet to visit; the old Frisbee field. Upon his arrival, he gazed out onto the large field, smiling as he felt a warm breeze pass by. He had to admit, although the Japanese had a large variety of thing that America didn’t, they didn’t have the Frisbee he had grown to love. He flopped back onto the grass like he used to, staring off into the sky. He didn’t really have a place to return to, unless you count the hotel room he rented, and staying here seemed more appealing.

It grew dark, and one by one, the shops in the mall began to close, and slowly empty out as its resident’s headed home. Deciding to do the same, the woman retreated to her car, deciding on her next destination. She found that she couldn’t sleep when she arrived home, knowing that he was somewhere close. She got up and walked to his house, and gazed at the window to his room almost wishing him to appear like some kind of reverse Romeo and Juliet. She laughed a little when she realized that she herself did not possess as many memories of him as she thought. Memories of short days hanging out with him, or random and funny conversations, and Frisbee games were all that occupied his part of her mind. “Such a short list, a short time together” a dry laugh escaped, her head sank down into her chest. She spotted his car, dormant on the driveway, collecting dust from the inactivity of its master. Rides to nowhere, and rides to distant places with her in the passenger seat glowed in the back of her mind. Maybe she didn’t need a lot of memories, just the one that meant the world to her.

Almost five years of absence, and time had felt frozen here in his home town. Morning came, and he found himself walking along the paths around his old college. With a cap to hide his eyes, he wandered around taking in the sights, and the people. It was a strange love story, the boy who fell for a girl, only to have it end in pain. He wanted to start new, but maybe things hadn’t changed so much. The young man had met and seen wonderful people, young women of incredible beauty. But his own memories always haunted him, kept him from being anything more than friends.

She looked out upon what his friend had said to be their old campus. He had gone to park the car, dropping her off to look around. It was quite small for a college, but it felt like home. She wandered, slowly drawing in everything that had made the young man who he was. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye, she spied some kind of commotion happening in the corner near the parking lot.

The young man had been enjoying the old life he had left behind, slowly getting ready for his departure. Suddenly a warm breeze caught him and brought about that familiar scent that cause him to cry so much. He drops to his knees as the tears start to fall, and he hugs his arms to his chest, if only trying to grasp that fleeting breeze. He shakes himself off, and wipes the warm tears from his eyes and glances towards the road ahead. To his surprise, through the shadows and the parted crowd, a wavering dress, and a bright smile fill his vision. The crowd gathered around the both of them, and the young man slowly got up from his position on the ground to face the woman he had left. She was smiling, with tears slowly falling down her face, with a look that had said it all.
“You don’t remember anything. Please tell me you don’t remember…” The young man’s voice stuttered out.
“You don’t want me to remember? It’s hard to believe I forgot at all, but you’re the one responsible for it right?” she murmured as she wiped her eyes.
“I just didn’t…” the young man started
She silently placed a finger on his lips, killing anything he could think of.
“You said what you needed to say in my letter didn’t you? Let me make up for all of the time and the words that I couldn’t find…”
The breeze blows fiercely, scattering his thoughts like the leaves upon the ground, that ever so familiar scent causing his heart to race. Through the crowd they met face to face, the one who started it all, the fool who fell in love, the perfect woman, the most imperfect man, the beauty, and the crying beast.

As always, Happy reading!