I've met many people as I travel. I've also lost many that came to mean to me. Yet and I continue to make my way, I meet more blessed souls, and I keep those who have gone, strong in my heart and memory. It has kept me yet warm and secure when my travels had to be made alone. Lone long harsh nights, and wondrous days, under sparkling stars, and scorching heat, and pleasant times of light rains, cool winds and joy-filled air with life. Times which were so spectacular, your only regret it that there's no one else to share it when. And the sharing is such a fantastic thing. It keeps the glorious memories more brilliant in your mind's eye as you make the rest of the way.

      It's a journey of great expectations, anticipations, surprises, and delights. There are also many harsh realities, which comes with it, painful elements to experience and witness. You can't just take one and leave the other. Like a coin, you have to accept that it's got both sides. The good, the bad, the ugly and the beauty, it makes the journey all the more interesting. Where the bleakness makes the brightness even brighter. Though, those joys can also make the sorrows more sorrowful. You chose your path, and you walk it, and you take whatever that comes at you. But when you find your destination, it will only be fulfillment in the end that drowns every other black experience.

      Only those who stop too long, end their journey too soon, or just give up before the due course is run who will never get to experience the highest of reaching the destination. It's admitted, the trials and tribulations of the path, but then the only reason you can appreciate happiness is because you've felt sadness. The only reason you appreciate good health is because you've been sick. As the only reason you appreciate having friends is because you've felt loneliness, and these differences, like the Ying And Yan of life, the darkness and light is the essence which makes the road so worth taking. And in the end, it's not the destination, but the journey itself that you would treasure. 

      So walk the path, never giving up and don't look back for it's definitely a road worth walking, and destination worth reaching.

       Suddenly the girl was walking up beside him, and he stared at her.
       "Well, now I am walking beside you, using the way I always use to go home, so you can't say that I am following you!" was her explanation.
       The boy grunted and they kept on walking side by side.

       When they reached her house and she stopped the boy said, "Now you can tell your Mommy that I made sure you got home safely!"
       "You scrawny lil thing? My Mommy would think I was protecting you!" the girl laughed.
       "I ain't THAT small for my age!" The boy protested.
       "Hah! Believe what you want then!" she replied, then thinking again, she said, "Want to come in for some juice? I am sure my Mommy won't mind since you brought me home safely and all."
       The lil boy thought for a while and then grinned, "Okay..."
       "My name's Lisa," she said to the boy offering her hand.
       "Well Lisa, I am Michael." He replied shaking her hand....

       And that was how Michael and I became friends so long ago at the age of 10. Over the years he and I have shared a lot together. We played together, went out together, ate at each others homes, told stories to each other, laughed together, cried together, and shared the sweetness and bitterness of each of our lives with each other. Only thing was that Michael kept one secret from me all these years, well until yesterday that is.

      I guess because during the days I had school, when I made my way home, Michael would meet up with me half way from where ever he was from, I thought that he just went to another school. The question of where it was we studied, or what we did while we were apart never really came up as something important. He never really liked talking about what he did, and would always want to hear about what I did instead. But he was so good at making it seem as though we were both exchanging stories, that I never realized I was normally the one telling it all.

       Still, the lack of information of what we did everyday didn't make any gaps in our relationship or conversations. There was always something else to talk about. And when there wasn't, there was always something else to do... Like music, and poetry, and song, and TV and all the games we would play. Michael gave me the fullest friendship I could ever want for or have.

       And we more than friends to each other, more than 'like brother and sister', more that lovers (though we were never that), we shared so much that it had no definition. It was the best part of all those relationships put in one. And it's not as though we never fought. OH MY GOD! How we used to fight... But the fights never lasted very long. Michael never let it drone on. 

       6 years I have known Michael, 6 wonderful years... Then yesterday... The first lie is revealed, a lie that's lasted for 6 years... Michael has cancer you see. He was just recovering from it when I had first met him, and things seemed to have been going normally, he said. But he always knew that it was going to come back, he knew that it wouldn't stay away from him for long. He knew that since he was 10, and he knows that for sure at 16... because it was back. He knew but he never told me, never told me that I would lose the person who would become my best friend, before that friendship could have been made... 

       "I wanted to have one really good friend before I die," that was what he said. 
 "I knew that you weren't following me that day... In fact, I had been watching you for a while, and I knew you took that path also. I just made up that accusation that day when I found you walking behind me hoping that somehow we would be friends... I wasn't going to accuse you of anything actually. I was going to say hello and introduce myself. But I got scared thinking you wouldn't want to know me, and I blurted out that stupid accusation. In the end though, I never regretted it. You are and have always been the best friend I've ever had. More than I wished for even, so much more than I prayed for." His eyes shone bright with love and tears, as I sat there staring at him in silence, trying to figure out what he was telling me and why... 'Michael was going to die?' My mind couldn't comprehend that...

       He slowly explained to me about the cancer, and how it was back, and that's why he had gone away for a while. He had to get treatment, but this time the doctors said that it wasn't going to help much because he was too weak.

       I could not and would not take it. Not right at that moment at least. I left him as he tried to call me back to explain things further. I came straight home and I have not left my room since yesterday morning. Mom said that Michael had come last night and stuck around for a few hours hoping that I would come down, but I never did. And he's called a million times, but I never answered. I just could not accept it. 'Michael was going to die?' My mind couldn't comprehend that...

       Three days I stayed in my room. My mom was almost going to break the door down when I decided to come out. She said it was a good thing my dad wasn't in town, or he would have done it already. But she understood enough not to lecture me too much. She brought me food, but I had lost my appetite. 'Michael was going to die?' My mind couldn't comprehend that...

       Mom said that Michael was worried about me and wanted me to call him as soon as I felt I could. He said that he was very sorry. My laugh scared my mom I guess... Michael was worried about me? He was the one who was going to die... And he should be sorry... I never wanted a friend who was gonna die on me that fast. I used to think that somehow I would get Michael to be my husband-to-be's best man if I could even. Suddenly I realized how Michael never really liked to talk about the future, and always avoided making plans like that. Never knew what he wanted to be when he grew up and started working. Never knew anything about what he would want to do after his schooling life... Then I realized why... He never knew all those and never talked about all those, because he knew that he would not be around long enough to live it, thus never had the need to talk about it.

       I could feel my heart pumping hard yet slowing down at that moment of realization. My breath was long and shallow; I felt pain all over. 'Michael was going to die..." My mind started to accept it.

       I went over to Michael's house as fast as I could then, and he was waiting for me at his doorstep. My mom apparently told him that I was coming. His eyes were bloodshot, as though he hadn't slept for days, and he looked so very weary and tired, and lost. 

       "I'm so sorry..." He said as he sat down and buried his face in his hands.

        I felt my heart breaks into a million pieces, and I went to him and held on to him tight. We said nothing for a long time, just sat together there tears rolling down our faces, with no sobs or words to express them.

       I forgave him for the lie. And then I thanked him for the gift he gave me. The gift of the most beautiful friendship I had ever known. We spent a lot of tome together after that. More even than before. Desperate in away, not knowing when he was going to die, yet knowing that it would come soon. I made him talk to me though about what he would have wanted with life.

       "You..." he replied with a smile... "I would have wanted to have you by my side always. I would have asked you to marry me one day. We would have all those children you want and live in picket fences, though I hate em, but you liked them. I would have wanted that and anything else, as long as I had you with me..." I was speechless.

       "But I know that's not what you want to hear. I guess you never even considered that," he said with a loving smile, and shook his head. "I would have wanted to be an astronaut, because I would have to have been as fit as heck to be that right? No cancers like this killing me, or anything else for the matter. Only minor stuff perhaps which didn't stop a person from being able to go to the moon. I've always loved the moon, and you know that. I wanted to go there." he looked up at the moon for a while... "As for kids, I don't know, I don't think I would have wanted them to get this cancer from me... Unless they were your babies, I would love to be able to father your children, but I ain't worthy of course..." he hushed my protests.

       "But you know, I never thought about all that. And that's why I never told you about it. I had everything I wanted. I have my parents; I have my Lord, and most of all... I have YOU. And I feel so blessed..."

       I cried that night. Cried myself to sleep.

       Michael's been gone a long time now. But I keep him in my heart and take him everywhere I go. Before he died, he told me that he was going to be very happy to see the tunnel of light. His pain would end and he could watch over all of us from up there amongst the angels, and he would be happy. He told me that I should be happy too.

       He came to me in a dream after he passed away. He said that he was indeed happy, and he gave me a kiss saying that he knew I wouldn't protest it then. He smiled, and told me that everything would be all right. Again he thanked me, "You gave me the fullness of a life that most people never get to appreciate thought they've lived many more years..." He promised that he would always be with me though.

       And now I can hear him sing with the whistle of the winds. See him play with the birds on a bright sunny day, see him dance in the rain as the trees sway. I feel his warmth when the nights get cold... He visits my dreams. 

       I am married now, and my son's name is Michael. And though my best friend Michael and my husband look so very different from each other, and they are so very different from each other... It's really uncanny how much my son looks like and acts like Michael... Perhaps Michael's soul drifted into my son and lives on in him... My husband knows I think this, and he agrees. 

                                              And I am so very happy.