Fleeting childhood..

Row of bookshelves. Empty chairs and tables. Silence everywhere. Only the sound of the humming air conditioner and pages of books rustling can be heard. She cocks her head to the left. Groaning as she massage her sore right shoulder. The books in front of her stack on top of one another. She sigh. So many books to read. So much time have to be spent here. She closes her eyes. She breathes in..

*Little girl's giggling*

She opens her eyes in a shock. Did someone bring a kid in here?

*Little girl giggles again*

She turn her head to the sound of the sound of that giggle. However, she only manage to see fluttering of a curly hair at one of the bookshelf as the little girl run away from her. She raises her eyebrows. 'That hair..' Ahh, it's impossible. It can't be..

The little girl giggles again. It is eerie as the library is in dead silence. However, she is not afraid. The little girldoes not scare her. The little girl runs behind her. She turn her body to look at this mysterious child and only manage to glance at the back of a small chubby girl..wearing long dark blue pants and green cartoon t-shirt with a pair of black sandals. Her hair.. her hair that is long and curly at the end. The little girl run into one of the row in the bookshelves again. She stands up.

"Wait! Don't run away." she calls to the little girl. The little girl laughs again.

She run after the little girl. However, the little girl always seem to run faster than her. She run through the row of bookshelves with the laughter of the little girl echoes everywhere. As she manage to get close to the little girl, the laughter began to fade. The little girl then run to the left corner of the bookshelf. She speed up her running with the thought that she finally gets to see who is this peculiar child. As she turns left, she saw the little girl stops in front of a dead end. Her long hair stay still. She turns to look at this young adult that has been chasing her. The young adult gasp. The little girl is her. She is her..at the young age of five years old. Her heart skips furiously. It is truly surreal to be staring at yourself. Your young self.

The little girl smiles. There is something sublime about it. She is smiling but, her eyes look sad. The young adult is still in shock. She moves closer to the little girl. However, the little girl back away from her. Shaking her head slowly. She then raises her left hand and wave. She is still smiling and then, she say these words..

"Don't miss me.."

Slowly..like a fading sunlight, the girl disappears. The young adult slump on her knees. She just smile with tears running down her cheeks. She finally understand why she see that little girl. See her young self.

It is her childhood. It is saying goodbye.

The air conditioner hums again. The books stay still in their respective shelves. She stands up. She moves on to her seat. Move on with her life.