How hard could it be to forgive someone else? Whatever sins they may have committed will still leave its mark. Time could heal all wounds. I’m not sure if that’s even true. What if ten years was not enough? What if you have an eternity? You can say, I’ll forgive that person tomorrow. You can keep saying that for a long time. Eventually, that grudge will stay.

How much harder can it be to admit your own faults? To break your own pride just to make that other person feel better. To finally say, I’m sorry to the one person you hurt. That pain will still be there. Saying sorry won’t heal it immediately. But maybe it might help.

Forgiveness on either end will always be difficult. You would have to tear down any grudges in order to open yourself up to another person. I wonder what that felt like.

Like the time when Jasmine played pranks on me during a whole month in April last year. She went all out. From fart bags to scaring me around the corner, she did all sorts of things. Then she went too far like embarrassing me in public or tripping me. Those pranks did hurt very much. I still hold a grudge against her to this day.

I don’t think I could forgive her for going too far. Maybe she didn’t mean to. Maybe I could forgive her one day. One day I might. Tomorrow I’ll forgive her.

These thoughts lingered all morning. I was on the floor trying to keep cool. The ground was the coldest part of the room. There was a cool breeze coming in through the window. I could feel the heat rising to the ceiling.

It was the warmest summer day in the middle of August. I was stuck home when I realized that today was the day I had planned in advanced. If only I knew of the weather. I didn’t want to go outside but I already made the obligation.

“Let’s go, Lucy.”

“Why do I have to go with you?”

Lucy whined as she put her shoes on. She was still wearing her slightly dirty white dress. All she did was stay at my apartment so we never bothered to get her new clothes. Her hair grew long in the past two months so she had to tie it up.

“Because I said so. We’ll get ice cream on the way.”

“Fine…”

“And go wash your face.”

“What’s the occasion? Are we going on a date?”

“No, we’re not.”

“I see you blushing.”

The little devil giggled as she walked out ahead of me. I knew she was teasing but I didn’t fall for it.

We walked our way towards the park. It was a familiar walk to me as it was just last night I went with Lucy this way. And it was my typical walk to work too.

As we arrived at the park, I saw a familiar person. She had a large brown summer hat while wearing a long bright white dress and small sandals. Her medium length hair was tucked in under her hat and for the first time, I ever saw her wore makeup.

“Hey, David!”

That familiar woman waved at me. As I got closer, I could tell that she was standing in the heat for quite a while.

“Hey, Raphie.”

“Oh, you brought Lucy with you.”

I got a closer look at Raphie’s makeup on. It was light on the makeup but some smudges were visible.

“Why do you look like that?” Lucy said bluntly.

Raphie was flustered.

“I uh, didn’t know that…”

I was confused. Why would she bother wearing some makeup on a day like this? All I did was ask her to come see me out in the park. It was no big deal.

I suggested that we sat by the shade of the trees. There was a bench behind us where we could see the kids playing.

As we sat, I noticed that Lucy and Raphie sat beside me. There was just one little problem. With me in the middle, they couldn’t start any conversations.

There were some kids outside playing in the playground over to the left of us. I could hear the kids playing in the background. There was also the sound of the ice cream truck nearby. That guy was definitely going to make a lot of money today.

The silence continued. Other than the children playing that is. It was then that Raphie broke it.

“So how was work yesterday? Sorry I couldn’t come. I started doing community service as of recently.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you did that.”

“Yeah, its something I wanted to do since I had plenty of time to spend for the summer.”

“That’s nice of you.”

Lucy faked a cough. She then started giggling quietly.

“So this was your date.”

Lucy whispered in my ear.

Shut up!

I screamed in my head.

Even knowing that this little devil was teasing me, I couldn’t help it.

I was in the middle of a conversation with Raphie and I didn’t want it to go south. This was bad with the rate this was going.I wanted to bring Lucy with me so I could bring the two of them together. All I did was act as a wall by sitting in the middle.

“Since you have plenty of spare time why don’t you play this game with us.”

“Us?”

Lucy questioned as she stuck her head out of the corner.

“Yeah, it’s called HellsCraft Online.”

“I don’t know…”

“Don’t let the name fool you, it’s a great game.”

“Does it take long to play?”

“You can play at your own pace.”

“I don’t think Raphie would want to spend less time in community service,” Lucy said.

“Yeah...” Raphie said.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. You get to play an angel too.”

“The story won’t make sense and it’ll take forever for her to play!”

“Lucy, shut up.”

For once, I wish she had been the one who tempting another person.

On the bright side, I got Lucy to start talking.

“Well, I could look into it when I have the spare time.”

“It’ll be great. I promise you’ll enjoy it.” I said as I smiled.

I turned around to find Lucy pouting. I guess she was still awkward with her own sister now that she’s going to start playing the same game. But this was an opening that I needed.

“Speaking of the game, did you get to beat that dungeon Lucy?”

“Ah… Well…”

I knew it.

She was still trying Aegis of Heaven. Knowing her, she tried to get some guild to help carry her. But still failing anyways.

“We can get Raphie to start playing and maybe we can all play the dungeon.”

“We need five people to do Aegis of Heaven.”

“Okay. We got you, me, Raphie, uh…” I thought who could possibly help us. “Colin and Evan.”

Colin would do anything for girls and Evan wasn’t too far behind in the game too.

“That sounds fun.” Raphie said with a smile.

“Great.” Lucy said with a disappointed look.

All the kids around the playground left towards the ice cream truck. The noise level went down significantly. I thought of this as a chance.

“I’m going to get some ice cream, do you want anything?”

“Strawberry!” They both said out loud.

Both Lucy and Raphie blushed as they stared at each other.

“Strawberry, got it.”

I walked away with a plan to get three strawberries.

I looked back and noticed the two were finally talking.

“You look like a mess.” Raphie said which was uncharacteristic of her. She had a smile on her face. I assume she didn’t mean any harm. Is this how siblings tease each other?

“So do you.”

“I didn’t mean to wear all of this.”

Raphie was flustered again. She tried to cover her face behind her hand. In the end, it just smudged her makeup once more.

“Yeah right.”

“At least I clean up after myself.”

“What?!”

They were both sweaty and their hair was messy. It was the hottest day of the summer. I couldn’t blame them. But something about after what they said made them laugh. A chuckle came out of me from this sight.

No matter what happened in the past didn’t matter. They may talk about it again in the future. Maybe they never will. Time heals all wounds. Sometimes forgiveness was what we need to seal the deal. Other times you don’t have to say anything at all. It was then I knew these two will become sisters once again.