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The Hourglass Lovers
The first thing I remember was waking up, before that it was like nothing else had happened. I vaguely remember thinking, “where am I?” I tried to move but it took all my strength just to lift my arm. The useless thing fell onto a glass wall in front of me. Forcing my eyes to look around I could see the cold shine of the glass all around me. Then I heard it, the gentle tapping on the glass, the walls of my cell singing. What little strength I had left concentrated on moving my head to see. Above me you sat smiling and waving in your own glass case. The first thing my heart remembered was your face, it was as if nothing before that could have possibly mattered.

I had been awake longer than you, watching you sleep with child like curiosity. You were so different from me, so fragile and weak. When you finally woke up you seemed confused, you didn’t know where you were. Even though you shouldn’t have been able to, you moved around almost instantly, testing the walls around you. But, you couldn’t see me. All you could see was the glass all around you, the prison you knew you couldn’t escape from. Shakily, I brought my hand to the glass, a gentle tap that caused the walls to hum. You turned your head so slowly as I waved at you cheerfully. Then I saw you smile weakly and I felt my heart fall, it had already begun.

As time moved slowly past us I could move more and more. I knew it was your smile that woke me up each morning, the warmth of its kindness giving me the strength to get up. You tried to something once but the sound came through muffled and distorted. The glass hummed along with your voice and it startled you. My own voice came out too weak and quiet, it couldn’t stand up to your own harmonic voice. Deep in thought you pressed your hand against the glass and then you experimentally breathed against it. A strange fog engulfed the glass in front of your face. I couldn’t see you, I didn’t know what had happened. My pointless pounding on the wall above me made a whisper compared to yours. Suddenly the fog yielded in front of a gentle finger. “HI,” you traced before wiping away the excess fog. When I saw you smile, so proud of yourself, safe and unharmed, I thought my heart would never slow down.

It took me longer to wake up than usual but I knew I had to be up before you. Each morning I greeted you with a happy smile, why did yours always seem happier? I watched you get stronger. I wanted to talk to you so badly, wanted to hear your voice. “Hello,” my voice tried to say but the glass roared in response. Terrified I jumped away from the sound of my own voice and tried to hide from it. Your voice was so gentle and patient and you made me feel safe. But, I still had to talk to you, I needed to. My hand pressed against the cold glass as I contemplated what to do. The lights clicked on in my head and I breathed against the cool glass and covered it in fog. I had no idea what to write, there was so much I wanted to say. Below me I heard your gentle taps telling me to hurry. Settling on the simple greeting I traced the letters and cleared away the left overs. Below me I saw you smiling through a tear stained face. My heart tried to tear itself apart. Would you still smile like that when all was said and done?

I couldn’t help but be excited when I found you still asleep, you were always awake before me. I jumped up quietly and traced my practiced letters on the glass above me, “GOOD MORNING!” Finally you woke up and saw my greeting, you smiled but didn’t write anything back. Staring down you watched as u wrote my thoughts on the walls. You smiled and nodded but you never wrote back. Had I done something wrong? “IS EVERYTHING OKAY?” I traced the letters and looked up at you. Surprise seemed to have hit you like a stone, you painted on a smile and nodded. “SORRY, I‘M JUST A LITTLE SLEEPY.” You seemed to be sleepy a lot after that, but you tried so hard to cover it up. Everyday you would energetically write responses to whatever I said. But, each night I could see you collapse from exhaustion onto the glass. Was I pushing you? Did I force you to be awake when all you wanted to do was sleep? My heart felt like a heavy stone in my chest, and I couldn’t even ask you why.

Each day it hurt to get up, my joints screamed in weariness as I forced myself up each morning. The morning you woke up before me really showed me how close we were to the end. When you looked at me so full of concern I had to do something. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t let you know. To the end I tried to smile and be happy with you. My heart slowed each day despite its fluttering near you. Finally I knew I couldn’t keep up any longer, I spent the whole day talking to you, smiling and drinking in every second of happiness with you. It was the first time in a long while that you fell asleep before me. You still looked so fragile even though the one who was breaking was me. I smiled one last time at you as I wrote my final message before I fell asleep. It was funny, I had been so terrified of this before but as I closed my eyes I felt so safe seeing you there.

That day I woke up before you again, it had been the first time in a while so I decided to wait for you to get up. I waited and waited but you didn’t move. Pressing against the glass ceiling I tried to see if you were okay, knocking gently to try to get your attention. You didn’t move but I could see you breathing faintly. Above you in a shaky and running fog message was, “I LOVE YOU, GOODBYE.” Panicking I pounded on the glass keeping me from you. Screaming your name as the bitter tears ran down my face I frantically tried to reach you. I couldn’t even feel my hands as they threatened to break against the screaming glass. Our joint prison might have moved but I wouldn’t have known. Even as the glass fell to the ground I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. We crashed down to the floor and the glass exploded around us. Not even that would wake you from your painful sleep, you laid there motionless and surrounded by glass. I could feel the glass sink into my skin as I clumsily stood up to find you. As I lifted you away from the glass and held you close I could feel your breathing become shaky. You weakly placed your arms around me and cried as I tried to stop my own tears. “I won’t let you go,” I answered softly, “I love you too.”