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It could have happened like those clichés that people like so much. On a sunny afternoon in spring, autumn or even summer, with the birds singing the melody of life and the perfume of the flowers mixing with yours, but not... It was cold, lifeless and almost morbid.
I remember it as if it were just a few days ago, you were wearing a heavy and warm dark blue coat, your dark hair was a beautiful shade of green and natural, with some strands daring to follow the wind, sometimes it was weak, like a leftover breeze, and other times it was strong, making me accelerate my steps to get to some place I didn't know.
I must confess that for me you didn't fit into that wintery and uncomfortable scenario, because, unlike me, who was “born” for the coldest and loneliest temperatures, you were eloquent, warm, comfortable and had a magnetism that seemed to attract people wherever he went.
I didn't know it at the time, but that day you didn't want to be happy anymore, you were adapting to the cold almost like me.
The wind blew stronger and with it your scarf flew towards me (in front of the street you were on), Just as a book that was in one of the coat's shallow pockets fell to the floor, you didn't seem to notice (or if you did, you didn't care).
I grabbed the tissue out of the air, but when I went to give it to him I didn't see him on the street anymore, I crossed and picked up the book. It may seem strange, but even though you were a complete stranger to me, I was sad that I couldn't return them to you.
Time passed quickly after this 'almost meeting', however, I couldn't get the boy with greenish hair and a black scarf out of my head.
That year the winter was not so cold, i remember thinking it was strange, but I didn't pay much attention to it, after all it was still at the beginning of the season.
Time started to drag on for no particular reason, but I admit, that was when I ended up trying to forget you.
I saw the snow fall, so serene and immaculate, that it seemed afraid of reaching the ground and dying due to such impurity in the world.
I heard the wind blow in different chords, like a whistle full of secrets and stories lost in time.
I witnessed the wave of cold within the hearts that thought they were the purest.
I remember a year when winter ended relatively quickly, as if spring was tired of waiting to bring its warm, colorful beauty to that cold, white landscape. You know what was funny? It immediately reminded me of you, because the first tree I saw (an ipê) was blue, just like your coat.
And the first flower I saw bloom was a beautiful black rose, which despite showing loneliness and darkness, only managed to remind me of you.
When silence reigned, I ended up picking up ‘his’ book with the colorful cover and reading one of the many sentences written with colored markers, one in particular was, and still is, my favorite:
“Winter is not so bitter and colorless, just clean things up so that spring arrives in all its splendor.”
With that time once again seeming to fly by, I was searching for the 'spring boy' as I called her in my mind, but you seemed simply to have been taken into communion with the sweet scent of spring. You left me alone wandering in winter again without even realizing it... But, okay, it was my fault anyway.
Months passed, as did some springs and winters.
I felt my body wasting away due to a hereditary disease.
I saw the colors slowly cease to exist without caring.
I saw my (few) relatives take me to a hospital and admit me there, as a last act of kindness.
I remember seeing, now no longer a boy, spring enter the room.
I remember thinking I had started to hallucinate.
I felt the light winter breeze come in through the window, bringing me, for the first time, the sweet, unmistakable smell of spring, and I realized that I had been right all along, it actually had a lovely floral scent.
Smile.
I witnessed, for the first time, your voice being directed exclusively to a being as despicable as myself.
She said she had seen me somewhere...
I just knew how to smile in a genuinely happy way, like I hadn't done in years. And with another gentle cold breeze, I remembered the little passage that I had so much affection for and recited it:
- "Winter is not so bitter and colorless, it is just cleaning things up for spring to arrive in all its splendor."
I remember seeing him open his eyes, smile and say:
- "Winter and spring"?
My smile widened a little wider.
And, unfortunately, finally, I felt my strength leave, just like the path that the wind took to enter that room...
But I promise you, my, not so small and not so mine, piece of spring, we will meet again in the next life.
In this life, I couldn't be with you... but next time? But in the next life? Nothing will stop me from being by your side.
You may not recognize me, I wouldn't doubt if that happens, but don't worry, I'll know who you are as soon as I set my eyes on you and hear your happy, sweet voice again.
*END(?)*