Picture-perfect.

What could be more intriguing than having a weird attraction towards someone whose aura screamed mystery?

I guessed nothing else.

And there she was, the object of my attraction, staring hard into the woods, so afar off. I watched her silently for some while, and without knowing when and how, I found myself sitting beside her on the grass.

She gave off no impression of having heard someone settled by her side. She spared me no glance, she just kept on basking in her aloneness. Well, I wasn’t surprised, after all she had a reputation of being the school snob. An attitude problem if you would call it that.

“I don’t have an attitude problem, just a personality no one can handle.” She said out of the blues.

Her words caught me off-guard, and I couldn’t help but stare at her like she’d grown two heads. Coupled with the mysteries that surrounded her, could she read minds as well?

“I’m no weirdo, okay? You can stop staring at me like I’m one. I’m just your normal girl.” She shrugged.

Normal? She called herself normal? She was nothing close to being normal. Weird… Strange… Name it, that would be the perfect definition for her being.

“Call me whatever you want, I care less.”

“Why are you here anyway? You shouldn’t be seen with the loner, you know?” She pointed out in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

“You are not that.” I voiced out shakily.

She turned her gaze on me. Her mask slipped off from her face that moment, and I caught a glimpse of surprise off her. Well, why shouldn’t she be? Even my words surprised me.

“Maybe you’re just different?” I muttered, the statement ending as a question.

She snorted with laughter.

“Why the sudden interest?”

I shrugged, clearly uncertain on the reply to give. “I’m just drawn to you, you piqued my curiosity.”

She gave no reply.

And like that, we sat in silence.

She stared into the sky and I followed her gaze. It was fixed on a bird floating through space.

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than one seeks. Nature provides a place of comfort and solitude, an escape from the pressures of life. Looking deep into nature makes me understand everything better.” She said with a lit face.

I stared at her in admiration. I had always known that she had a deep side to her, never knew it ran that deep.

“I never meant to be this way…” She started.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. But I didn’t interrupt her. Guess I would finally get an answer to her mysterious aura.

“…It just happened.” She finished off.

A deep sigh escaped from her mouth.

“There was no one to help me. No one would have believed my sith. I made the journey alone, and unfortunately I got caught. In my mind, things go dark. And no one knew. But then no one really knew me. Only me.”

She pressed the back of her hand against her mouth, her eyes squeezing shut. A stiftled sob sound escaped her lips and she immediately sucked in a harsh breath in an attempt to calm down. Then she glanced at me with a watery smile.

“Trying to know me won’t help you.”

“And why?” I deadpanned.

“You know half to nothing.” She chuckled. “I’ve always watched you, and I’d watched you watched me over the years as well.”

I laughed at her words. “I’m glad you stalked me as well.”

She smiled brightly, willing herself not to laugh.

“You are like that man my Ma do talk about everytime. Maybe I should call you picture-perfect.” She said.

Picture-perfect? Should that word be used for a mortal like me? I shook my head in disagreement. “I’m not without flaws. No one is perfect.”

She looked at me like she wanted to dispute that, but then she nodded.

“Ma said life isn’t perfect, maybe you’re right as well. When we lost all, she told me to hold on to the perfect moments, that the scars do not have to define me.” She said reflectively.

“Ma told me a lot about that man. But I will forever hold on to two things about Him. He is a Father. And He is a Saviour. I have never had a real father, but I imagine that a real father, a real Saviour, doesn’t wait for his children to say the right words when they are hurting. He would throw his arms around them, wanting to save them, right?

I nodded affirmatively, my gaze fixed on her.

“Ma said that in everything I should give thanks. In times of good and in bad, I should remain grateful to Him. But then, I found it hard to understand the idea of an unconventional God who resided up high and watched His people suffer. Why should He be revered? It made no sense to me.”

I pondered on her question as well, trying hard to wage it from her perspective.

“But after He had saved me, I realized that truly, God dwells in shadow and mystery. But I know one thing about Him now, one thing forever – This God of mystery and shadow gave good gifts, even to those who failed Him. Even if I fail Him again and again, I believe He would still be near, walking with me in my darkness.”

I believed that also, cause He had saved me at wild and unpredictable moments. He is here and He is at work. I am together with Him and I am safe.

Her words were all I needed at the moment. Who knew the strange girl always cladded in black had so much depth to her being?

“Ma said even though life didn’t work out for her the way she had wished, I am the good gift she got from Him.” She said dreamily. “With Ma, I had been through a lot, but He held it all together for us.”

I imagined what she might had been through and I sighed deeply.

“By some miracles, maybe the stars would align and the planets would rearrange, but in this moment, He is our picture-perfect.”

She smiled widely. “He was my rescue, and He saved me from myself. He love me, this I know and there are no exceptions. My picture-perfect!”

Photo Credit: Jerryshots.