"MELANCHOLY DREAMS" by Sarah Ryniker

STORY LAST UPDATED ON 01/03/2003

Melancholy Dreams Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

CHAPTER TWO: A NEW ENEMY, A NEW FRIEND

As much as I didn't get along with the arrogant, pigheaded David, I got along just as well with Kimberly. She was a very beautiful, smart, and sweet twenty-five-year-old woman who had inherited a home from the only family members that hadn't disowned her after she had become a parent. Her life seemed to be what mine had been at one point in time, peaches and cream. Then, just as quickly, it had all been taken from her. She didn't have many friends, and I honestly couldn't see why people wouldn't like her.
    Kimberly had a job as a photographer at the local Wal-Mart photo centre. She showed me some of the work she had done on Kylie, and I had to admit that she was fantastic. It did help, however, that Kylie was beautiful and had a smile that could charm even the coldest of hearts.
    I had yet to really know much about David and Kimberly's history. What I did know, though, was that Kylie was most definitely David's daughter. Her hair was the same golden, and her eyes were the same emerald green. She was tall like him and had the same full lips. Anyone could see who she was.
    I gave David one thing; he really was incredible with women. When Kimberly insisted that we all go to the mall, I saw that they all fell over themselves staring at him. I saw what they were looking at, but his personality made him obnoxious to me. I couldn't even begin to do what those girls had done. But then again, I had been so wronged by a man in my life that I found it hard for me to find myself so completely attracted that I stupidly drooled and gawked at a good looking, sexy man.
    He was also a good father to Kylie. Kylie didn't know that he was her father, however, but valued him as a friend. The six-year-old seemed to get a kick at how the women would stare at her David. I saw the way Kimberly watched them together, and I could see that it broke her heart that her daughter didn't know.
    "Hey, Kimberly, why don't we go sit down somewhere, I am awfully tired." Francine and Kimberly looked at me, and then looked at each other and shrugged. David walked off with Kylie to the toy store and we three sat down to talk.
    "We've only been here forty-five minutes, Cry. How could you be tired so soon?" Francine asked, her left eyebrow up in a question mark.
    I looked to Kimberly without answering. "David is Kylie's father, isn't he?" I began, just in case I could have been wrong.
    She looked away for a second and then nodded. "Yes, but Kylie can't know. I won't do that to her. She'd try so hard to get us together, and David and I just can't be together. It would break my heart to see her want her parents together so much, knowing that it just couldn't work."
    "I wouldn't tell her, Kimberly. It's just that it's so obvious," I commented, and saw Francine nod.
    Kimberly nodded, too. "I know it's obvious. She looks so much like him. And damn if she isn't just as charming."
    "Well, I beg to differ with you there, Kimberly. I don't find David charming," I muttered.
    She looked up at me for a second to see if I was serious, and then she laughed. "You're just what David needs for his giant ego that he carts around with him everywhere," she declared.
    "I'll be more than happy to try to bring him down from his high horse," I promised with a smile. She laughed again, and then we all got up to look for David and Kylie.
    It was so easy to become friends with Kimberly. But it was just as easy to find disgust and annoyance with David. As soon as we walked into the toy store, we saw young mothers swarmed around him, while he charmed each and every one of the five that were there, one pregnant. Kylie looked absolutely bored, sitting on the floor next to David's leg, waiting impatiently to be told that she was free to find what she wanted.
    I had become such a vocal person for someone who had once been so silent. I walked right up to him and glared at the women, whom I knew thought that I was a jealous girlfriend. "David, I thought you brought Kylie here to buy her something, not diddle-daddle with a bunch of women who I'm sure have men at home."
    Some of the women had the audacity to actually look guilty and then walk away. It amazed me that women could not only be so shallow but could also so easily forget about the men they supposedly loved. I had scared off the women with my icy cold glares to them and harsh reminders of their husbands and boyfriends.
    David, on the other hand, held no sign of guilt. "You're such a shrew, Cry," he laughed, his eyes sparkling with sheer amusement.
    "Shrew or not, David, don't you think that it's wrong to mess with other men's women?" I snapped.
    He shrugged. "It's not my fault if they feel the need to stray. I'm just here to assist," he gloated with a cocky smile that I felt like slapping off.
    "And what if some man took away the woman you love with his own good looks and charm?" I was hoping to find some ground on which to convince him that he was in the wrong. But that was far more difficult than I thought it would be.
    "I never let myself get attached." He once again held a cocky smile on his face. And I found no reason to not believe him. Whereas some men used that as a cover to hide their feelings, I knew that David really felt nothing for any of the women he dated or had sex with.
    "You're disgusting." I shook my head and walked away, so frustrated I felt like screaming. How could anyone be so cold? And how did one man become so arrogant that he thought that he was God's gift to women, the true blue Casanova?
    "Kimberly," I called as I approached her in the aisle she was in, helping Kylie pick out a doll.
    She turned and raised her eyebrows in question. "Hmm?"
    "You're so wrong. I am not good for David's ego. Nobody will ever get through to him. He is the most disgusting, perverted man ever created. And I truly hate him," I declared with a vengeance.
    Kimberly looked at me with a small smile on her face. She turned down to Kylie to look at the doll her daughter was picking out, while talking to me. "Do you think that it's possible that you hate him so much because you're so attracted?"
    I blanched. I was attracted. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't highly attracted to him. But that wasn't why I hated him. And yet, I did just that; lied. "I am not attracted to him. He is much too pretty."
    She simply laughed, and walked past me to check out. Kylie, who had forgiven David for boring and ignoring her, couldn't wait to show him the new doll she had bought. Better watch it, Kylie, I thought to myself bitterly, he just might try to charm your doll into sleeping with him.
    I found that David spent an immense amount of time at Kimberly's house. It aggravated me because I didn't want to look at him. Yet there he was, day in and day out. Kimberly didn't seem to mind. It wasn't my place to tell her to keep him out. Besides, he was the father of her daughter. And they seemed to be really good friends.
    I did wonder, however, if Kimberly still didn't have feelings for him. Sometimes I would catch her staring at him with a wistful look in her eyes, almost as if she was wishing that they could be a real family together. I didn't blame her. What a strange family they were. Their daughter didn't even know her father was her real father. Someday she would, however. Because as Kylie got older, all she would have to do is look in a mirror to see the truth staring straight back at her.
    I knew that I was nosey, but I wanted to know what had gone on between the two. And I wanted Kimberly to trust me. I found her a very good person, whom I wanted nothing more than to be friends with. She just seemed so quiet, and scared of something. I didn't know what, but I was hoping to get her to open up to me about it.
    I decided to ask Francine if she thought that I should ask. Francine had talked to her a few more times than I had and would know if it would be a good idea or not.
    "Francine, what is Kimberly like?" I asked as I washed the dishes from dinner.
    She looked at me with her forehead wrinkled. "What do you mean? You know what she's like. You know about as much about her as I do."
    "Well, yes, I know, but I was just thinking that you could tell me if it would be a good idea to ask her about her past and everything. You know, like the thing between her and David." I looked at her to see what she honestly thought. Francine's feelings were always so clearly written in her eyes.
    "I think it's a sensitive subject, but if you feel the need to ask her about it, then you should. Don't let it just fester up inside of you, because then you might blurt it out at the wrong time one day." I knew that she was right, and so I decided that I would go ahead and ask Kimberly about it.
    I walked into the den off of the kitchen after I was finished with the dishes. Kimberly always read in there after dinner. Sometimes she would be in there for hours, sometimes even until the sun came up, if the book was good enough. It amazed me that someone could be so fervent a reader. But it didn't surprise me that Kimberly was so smart because of it.
    "Kimberly, can I talk to you?" I asked, tentatively.
    She gave me her sweet, welcoming smile and nodded. "Sure, what's it about?"
    "Well, it's actually about you and David. You always seem kind of sad. Does it have anything to do with him?" I was trying to be blatant, but not harshly so.
    She shook her and looked down. "No, it has nothing to do with David. He is a very good father to Kylie and a very good friend to me. David and I went our separate ways for a reason. We were always good as friends, but more than that, and all we ever did was argue. He needs somebody more wild and ready to tame him than me."
    "Then what is it if you're so over him?" I could feel her being very open. She didn't seem to want any secrets, or maybe she was just incredibly lonely.
    She took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. "Well, it has a lot to do with my family. You see my grandparents were the only ones who didn't disown me after giving birth to Kylie. I think you already knew that part. But what you don't know is how lonely an existence I've been living in. It has caused me a severe depression. Several times David has stopped me from committing suicide," she confessed.
    "Oh, no, Kimberly. But now you have people here who care," I said, reaching over to touch her hand. "I truly want to be a good friend to you."
    "Oh, Cry, that's sweet of you," she said through tears. "But it's just not the same. I need my family, yet they ignore the fact that I am even living. It hurts to know that my father died of a heart attack three months ago and I had to find out through the obituaries in the newspaper."
    My mouth dropped. "How could anyone be so cruel as to ignore the fact that they had ever raised such a wonderful person?"
    "I wasn't always such a good person, Cry. I was, at one point in time, very spoiled and rude. It took me losing my family to realise what I'd had," she said with such a sadness that I felt like crying.
    I got up and hugged her. "Well, we'll all be your new family. And maybe someday they can forgive you."
    "Thank you so much," she said, hugging back as if I was the only life raft she had in her sea of misery that surrounded her very existence.
    That night I found a friend that seemed to understand everything that I had been through. Instead of reading until all hours of the morning, Kimberly and I talked about everything. We talked about life, about family, about friends. She was fascinated by the way I had lived my life up until just the year before. I was fascinated by the fact that she could have been so horrible at one point in time.
    We both laughed and cried about the things that had hurt us in the past. Our memories were ones that were good and bad. Until I talked with her about it, I had decided that I had no good memories. But, however, I found that to be very untrue. I had many good memories, and telling the stories made me remember the better times in my life. And that made me happy, but oh so sad.
    Francine came in and sat down at around five in the morning. She started in with her own memories and things. We all seemed to find each other that day on a level not even Francine and I had ever reached. We became more than friends, we became true sisters. We had all been orphaned by our families in one way or another. We had all been lied to about something, or had secrets kept from them. And that made us be strictly honest with one another from then on.
    When I finally went to bed, I made the decision that the only support I would ever need about the abortion was right there in the house. I wouldn't go to the group for support. I knew why I'd done it, and I didn't want to hear any miserable stories. I was miserable enough.
    I fell into a comfortable sleep early that morning. I had got everything off of my chest. I had remembered good things and bad things. But when I woke up later I decided to remember something else from my past.
    I rose from my bed and went to the many boxes that were still packed. I pulled out a very large box and pulled out the pieces to reassemble them. When it all finally came together, tears burned my eyes as the memories took over. My mother's dollhouse stood in all its glory before me. The tiny pieces were all fitted perfectly into their places. It reminded me so much of when my father still at least pretended to love and adore me.
    I ran my hands over the fine wood and smiled through my tears. The dollhouse was a reminder of the mother that I had begun to get so close to and then had lost. We had grown apart just as we had begun to get close. That made me sad, but it had been nice when it had lasted, and it had given me some good memories of my mother, who I'd assumed had no attributes when I was younger.
    I sighed and left my room, content to know that, like Kimberly, I would be starting a new family. I had sisters, a niece and an enemy. Those things all came with a family. I loved them all already, except for David. Yes, he was a good father, but other than that he was annoying and pigheaded. But I decided that I could put up with him.
    Yes, I had a new family. A bigger one than I'd had before. It made everything I'd gone through seem worth it. After all, had I not gone through it all, I wouldn't be there now, being loved by someone who had been so hurt, and loving someone who had been through the misery I'd been through. I now had sisters, and I'd always wanted those.
    That same day, Kimberly went to the mall and had a special necklace made for both Francine and myself. They were simple gold necklaces with our stones in the first letter. They read "Forever Sisters". It seemed to seal the bond between us as much as blood would, had we been born to the same family.
    If I knew then that things would be so happy for so short a period, I may have been more hesitant to be so close. I was setting myself up to be hurt, and I didn't even know it. But since it all had happened, and I was happy, I wouldn't change it, ever. It was a special period in my life that I look back on with only a smile. And it's something that not a damn person can ever take away from me.

Melancholy Dreams Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue

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