It was almost dusk, and the sky looked as if orange juice had been spilled all over the horizon. Against the vibrant glow, the trees stood out in a deep, lush green. Fiona sat in the backyard with her Nona, the two of them wrapped in a comfortable silence as they watched the vehicles pass by on the distant road. A light wind brushed past, tossing Fiona's brown hair across her shoulders.
Nona was quietly leafing through an old photo album, her thumb lingering on a specific page. "Dear, look how cute you were in this red sweater," she said softly, a small smile appearing on her face. "I remember crocheting it for you."
Fiona had been sitting on the grass, but she moved closer to her Nona, resting her head gently on the older woman's knee as they looked at the faded pictures together. "Nona, do you think I will achieve everything I've wanted since I was a kid?"
Nona looked up at the sky, her gaze lost in the clouds for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was steady but full of memory. "My dear boy used to ask me that when he was just a boy like you. I would always tell him, 'My Adam, there is nothing the universe is holding back from you; you just need to go after it.'"
She sighed, looking back down at Fiona with a mixture of pride and sadness. "I wish he could have enjoyed the happiness of youth, but alas, he couldn't taste it for long. But my dear Fiona, there is nothing the universe is holding back from you, either. You just have to go after it!"
Fiona always felt a pang of heartache for her Nona. Though Fiona had lost her father when she was only twelve, she knew the pain was shared by everyone in that house. Her mother had lost her lifelong lover, and her grandparents had lost their only child. Fiona felt the weight of that sadness equally for everyone, yet she never allowed her mother to catch her crying.
She couldn't. Something inside her always held the tears back. She felt a fierce need to be the strong one—strong for her family, strong for her people. She never really stopped to think about being strong for herself.
The sadness ate at her from the inside, a quiet ache she never expressed. She had loved her father deeply; if anyone were to ask her about the one constant, life-changing event in her world, she would tell them it was losing her best friend. Her dad.
"My dear, we need to go inside," Nona said, breaking the silence as the air grew cooler. "Before my old neighbor friend next door sees me and makes me sit here for another hour."
They shared a small chuckle. As they stood up, Fiona caught the glint of a tear in Nona's eyes, but she looked away, pretending not to notice. It was a silent pact they kept—staying strong, even when the orange light of the sun began to fade.