Red Tulips
The fallen leaves crunched beneath her boots as Kolpona made her way through the fields across each building. It was a place she called home away from home. A place that always left her breathless, especially around this time of the year when the trees turned from shades of green to pale yellow, sunset orange and then eventually dark burgundy. Almost as if the sun was leaving behind remainders of summer, before fall swept in with the chilly wind. It has been ten years since her friends separated their ways. But every year, near the end of September when the leaves change color, they would all find their way back to the heart of campus, the fountain. For it was where they all met the first time during orientation week. Little did they know back then, that it would not have been for the last time.
At age eighteen Kolpona sat beside the fountain, completely mesmerized by the rippling waters and the little jets that sprung around it. It was the first time she had ever seen a fountain. Even though she was from the capital of Bangladesh, a city overpopulated by its masses and known for the seven rivers that flowed through the country, fountains were not a big thing there. A student of Literature, Kolpona had only seen paintings of them in books until she came to study in the great Midwest. She was waiting to meet her roommates, one of them who was arriving late because of a delayed flight from Bolivia. For a small-town girl from Bolivia, Alejandra had big dreams of literally flying high into the sky and had earned herself a scholarship to study aerospace engineering. Along with big brains, Kolpona would later come to know that Alejandra had a big heart too. She had mispronounced Alejandra’s name the first time, naively unaware of how the ‘j’s’ were pronounced as ‘h’ in Spanish. Chuckling at her own mistake, Kolpona waited when suddenly out of nowhere, Jana sneaked up from behind and frightened her to death by simply saying ‘ Boo!’ Jana was an adorable bright blue-eyed soccer player, native to the heart of America who had a passion for helping animals. They had met earlier in the day, during move in and had gotten off to a rocky start by debating whether or not they should turn off the lights when they left the room, but with time Kolpona came to love the mischievousness that sparkled in Jana’s eyes whenever she was up to no good. The air around them rang with laughter from Aliya who instantly captured the whole incident with a click of her camera. An Egyptian whose hejab did little to hide her beauty from the rest of the world, Aliya appeared to be shy at first but once she settled in and became comfortable with the people around her, her spirit jumped to life and she would dance and sing and mesmerize everyone. Nothing, not even the fact that she was an orphan affected Aliya’s zest for life. The girls soon became her family. The vivaciousness of Jana and Aliya paired perfectly as they became bunkmates while Kolpona and Alejandra resorted to the sanctuary of their quiet bunkbeds to escape from the other two. Throughout the course of their college life, the stress of exams, spending Thanksgiving mostly all at Jana’s house, accomplishments as well as heartbreaks, the four became inseparable. The girls were always there for each other, through the good and the bad, till their senior year that separated them but would still bring them back together every year after that. Just for a day. That day was today.
‘Boo!’ ‘Arrggghhhh! Jana! Is this how you plan on saying hi until the day we die?’, Kolpona exclaimed. ‘ And yet, you still jump out of your skin every single time. Love you Kol!’ Jana replied as she wrapped her arms around Kolpona in a tight hug. ‘Hola Kol!’ Alejandra said, as she too walked towards them and the three formed a tight group hug.
‘It’s time.’ Alejandra said as she motioned others towards the fountain. ‘I brought the shovels, do you have the tulips dear?’ Kolpona asked. ‘ Yes, I do. It’s already been 10 years, but I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for this.’ Jana replied as the three finally arrived at the fountain. They took off their coats and picked up their shovels to dig up the earth surrounding the fountain. Once that was over, Jana pulled out a basket of red tulips. They were Aliya’s favorite. One by one, the girls who were now women, carefully placed the tulips all around the fountain and soon enough a bright red circle was formed around the blue springs of water.
They took a step back to admire the work they had done in memory of Aliya on her birthday. For here, near the fountain was where they had first met her. For here, near the fountain at the end of their senior year, Aliya’s body was found face down in the water, with the words ‘Go back to your country’ written in blood on the stony exterior.
