– Diana, wait.
Diana turned toward the voice; she knew that Sam was waiting for her again on the bench outside the house, which was not particularly visible in the shade of the trees.
– Ah, it’s you again, said Diana indifferently, why are you always hanging around here, aren’t you bored yet?
Sam hesitantly handed the flowers to Diana and said, as if making an excuse:
– I just wanted to see you, that’s all.
He stood there with the bouquet outstretched. Diana sighed and reluctantly took the flowers.
– What am I going to do with you? – Diana said angrily, – childhood is over, Sam. You’re nothing to me, you’re nothing. I tell you this almost every day, and you persist in coming here, what a kindergarten.
– Diana, I can’t stop seeing you, as long as it’s stronger than me. Will it ever go away?
– It will never go away if you keep hanging around here every day,” the girl was angry, “for the hundredth time, I’m telling you: you’re nothing to me.
– Don’t be angry, Diana, it doesn’t suit you. Good night, sweet dreams,” Sam smiled and walked away.
Sam fell in love with Diana as soon as he saw her.
Diane, new to the school where Sam attended, came in sixth grade and was seated with him. Diane liked Sam, too, and they were like needle and thread, wherever he went, she went.
And now that her high school years were behind her, Diana didn’t even want to see Sam, and the young man didn’t want to believe in such a dramatic change in Diana and in their relationship. How could it be that he was “nothing”? He could not accept it, and every day he waited for her outside the house.
Sometimes the men would give Diana a ride in their car, and it was unbearably painful for Sam. At such moments he swore to himself that he would never go near her house again, but the next day, in the evening his legs would carry him to the cherished bench.
And Diana, as the man walked her to the entrance, knew that Sam was sitting there, on the bench, in the shade of the trees. It made her feel a little uncomfortable, but she thought: maybe when he saw her with someone else, he would finally get off her back.
-Why do you sit here every night? – Sam looked up and saw the funny little girl next to him. Mischievous freckles on the snub nose girl seemed to dance when she smiled, and in the light of the street lamps her lips had not lost their brightness, hazel eyes sparkled at the young man, and the mop of bright red hair seemed to shine a halo around the pretty face of the girl. Next to her, a dog just like her, a redhead, was running and jumping happily and cheerfully.
To Sam she seemed like a mischievous angel with a dog, he smiled and said in surprise to himself:
– I sit and wait for a miracle, but it doesn’t happen.
– And maybe it is not necessary to sit and wait? Maybe we should get up and go for a walk and look for it? – My Charlie and I go for walks every night and we can take you in our company and we can walk together and look for a miracle. Come on.
Sam looked in the direction of Diana’s entryway, and then stood up with determination:
– I think I’ll walk with you in search of a miracle.
Diana was surprised, even alarmed, for the first time in so long that Sam hadn’t come out to meet her. She slowed down and peered sideways at the bench, but the young man did not appear. She wondered, headed toward the bench, and the bench was empty. “Empty,” her words echoed with pain in her soul.
Diane heard the enthusiastic barking of a dog coming from the playground. The dog was bouncing around the girl and Sam, her Sam, walking beside her. Her?
Jealousy tormented the girl’s soul, the pain of losing something important in her life, and today, the first time Sam hadn’t met her, there was an irreparable void, an “empty space,” and the redheaded “angel” drove Sam farther and farther away from Diana.
