Pictre source: https://pixabay.com/es/photos/amanecer-bote-bote-de-remos-nadie-1014712/
“You can open your eyes now.”
Rafael slid his hands off of Kenbu’s eyes and she opened them. It was a bright pink sky that melted into a purple, then blue, the clouds stretched thin and long hanging in the sky.
Kenbu turned and hugged Rafael, so tight, he could barely move his arms to wrap around her. She then pulled back to smile at him, and he smiled a thin smile at her.
The two then began to walk to the boat. Kenbu slipped off her sandals and began to walk barefoot in the sand, grinning at Rafael. She then began to dance around, twirling and waving her hands, which told Rafael that she was very happy.
The two got in the boat and Rafael took hold of the oars, rowing them out to sea.
Kenbu was smiling so big, her cheek lumps nearly reached her eyes. Her coffee brown eyes shone in the little sunlight that was left, making her look like an angel. Rafael loved her. He always had.
He only wished she could say something. That things would go back to how they used to be.
Rafael had met Kenbu in third grade, when he first moved to North Carolina. He was all alone, and no one wanted to be the bookworm’s friend. For show and tell he told his classmates all he could about himself, but nobody was interested in this quiet boy from Boston.
He spent most of the year alone, until one day, a girl with huge twists and barretts in her hair stood in front of his desk at lunch. He looked up from his ham sandwich to stare at the girl.
“You’re birthday is October 4, right?” She asked.
“Yes.”
“Oh, well then, happy birthday Rafael.” she said.
How had she remembered!? He had only ever told anyone his birthday on the first day of school, at show and tell! He thought nobody had cared to listen to him, but someone had!
“T-thank you. Thanks a lot,” Rafael said to the girl. “Uh, want some of my brownie?”
The girl smiled. “Sure! I’m Kenbu, if you care to know my name.”
“Of course I do.” Rafael answered. He smiled the biggest smile he’d done all year at her.
The two had just gotten closer from then. It turned out the two both had a love for fantasy books, Kenbu loving the magical type and Rafael, realistic fiction. The two became best friends and worked on all their school projects together, and even were highschool sweethearts.
When Rafeal decided he would get into a relationship with Kenbu, his parents were overjoyed for him.
“But remember son, just because you love that person doesn’t mean a relationship with them will be all smooth sailing. There will be hardships to overcome, and arguments will happen and all types of other things, so keep that in mind.”
The knowledge stayed with Rafael even though he had no idea what his father meant, but now he understood. As Rafael and Kenbu grew older and decided to live with each other, they had argued all the time about what to spend money on and who’s doing what wrong. It only got worse to the point that one day, Kenbu yelled that she sometimes wished she could knock the smile right off of Rafael’s face when he’d won an argument. Two weeks later, Rafeal had gotten into a real bad bar fight and lost a tooth. This made Rafael hate smiling, so he barely ever did so for a while, and when he did, it wasn’t showing any teeth. Rafael knew Kenbu felt awful for this and blamed herself for his tooth loss and him no longer smiling, but Rafael didn’t feel like it was her fault. He just hated the fact that now he was missing a tooth. His smile wasn’t perfect, so why smile anymore?
To him, she had it even worse. One day while they were at the beach, a weird spider had bitten Kenbu and took her ability to speak forever.
This made Rafael feel terrible inside. He could have done something to prevent this, couldn’t he? Maybe he should not have went to the beach that day, or paid more attention to Kenbu so he could’ve killed the spider before it got the chance to-
Oh, why was life so cruel!? Why did Rafael have to lose a tooth, or Kenbu her voice!? Why was he even still with her!? They were in no ways perfect, but he still loved her with everything he had- oh! Love! That was why Rafael was still with Kenbu. Life wasn’t perfect, but Kenbu was still the world to Rafael. Even when they argued, they still loved each other dearly, and when they were done arguing, usually one of them said, “We’ll get through this. Soon we’ll get back on track and everything will be smooth sailing.”
When Rafael got his tooth knocked out, Kenbu made him his favorite soup at home and watched his favorite show with him while he retold the story of the barfight, which was hilarious when he thought about it.
And when Kenbu lost her voice, Rafael took her shopping for whatever she wanted that day, no matter what cost. He even made an effort to learn sign-language with her.
The two still loved each other like mad and Rafael would always remember that, just as Kenbu had remembered his birthday and sparked their friendship all those years ago.
Rafael was startled out of his daze by a warm hand landing over one of his. He looked up to see Kenbu, smiling at him, and staring into his eyes. He smiled back, a huge smile, even if it showed the spot where he was missing a tooth. He could spend the rest of his life with her. In fact he would.
He took a ring box from out of his pocket.
“I know every day won’t be smooth sailing, but will you spend the rest of your life with me?” Rafael asked Kenbu.
And she shook her head no.
As if! Kenbu’s eyes widened at the shiny rose gold ring with the amethyst gem in the middle and she hugged Rafael tightly, and kissed him three times.
She looked up and smiled at him, nodding.
And the two sailed on, to black shadows in the lavender sky.
The rest of the evening was smooth sailing.
~ END ~
My name is Shila Williams. I am 16 years-old, and I’ve had a passion for writing and drawing ever since I could spell. I grew up in North Carolina, as well as lived and traveled abroad. I write to inspire kids' minds to imagine and take them on a fun and adventurous journey.
I'm now a published author! Please support my debut book! Check it out here on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Imagination-Shila-Williams-ebook/dp/B09YXKWZJX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15MR85DQDQCA&keywords=imagination+shila+williams&qid=1651670532&sprefix=imagination+shila%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1
I've got NFT's!
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You can find them hereon Ab2.gallery!: https://ab2.gallery/address/VFJRN2LQ3F6I65YKQIMF6ULSYVF3B5HJRNLOQMTYTBNPJQNSYJANGFL6KU
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Thanks for reading!
Love is like everything else, we have to keep working on it and polish it to have a successful and lasting relationship with smooth sailing.
Thank you for sharing that story with The Ink Well, we appreciate your engagement in the community by commenting on other writers' stories.
Smooth sailing indeed, just because of a simple act of remembering his birthday, a beautiful love happened even though they had more challenges.
I'm glad, they didn't let their love die off because of what they faced.
Lovely story, thanks for sharing