Always and Forever - Celina Zabinski

---

---

It’s late in the evening, Celina has drank her way through many bottles of wine. She falls into a deep asleep instantly and starts to dream. For a moment, all she can see is darkness. Then suddenly she can hear a faint song in the distance. As she starts to focus on it the song gets louder and suddenly everything comes to focus. The song is soft and gentle but she can begin to make out the words as she listens closely.




As the first part of the song plays, in the distance images start swirling vividly around Celina and they suddenly come to focus. A spotlight focuses on one part, Celina can see herself at the bar in Daring Heights. Sammy is just in the corner. Celina recognises this is the moment they first meet. And sure enough Celina, watches as this Sammy makes his way over to this Celina. She can see his awkward ramblings as he tries to talk to Celina. Celina laughs as she chats her up. She just watches on as this scene plays out. Celina can see herself grinning at Sammy’s awkwardness. He won her over that day. The scene suddenly starts to fade away.


Promptly, the pictures change with the next part of the song. Celina can see herself waking up in that B&B the next day after meeting Sammy. She can see him with that smile he does so well, looking so happy telling him that he’s ordered food and that they were married. Celina remember this was the moment she regretted. She’s waiting to see Celina run out the door. However, Celina looks at this new Celina and she can tell something is different with this scene. This Celina is smiling, she’s not worried or scared. She laughs happily and smiles at new husband. She rushes out of bed and they embrace each other. They kiss passionately and are both smiling widely. Lots of colours start to explode around them and the scene quickly fades.



The next image that shows, Celina can see that this Sammy and this Celina are running away. They’re getting in a boat and sailing away somewhere. They each have a bag in one hand and they are holding each other with the other. The whole time, they never let go of their hands. Wedding rings are on both of their hands. They take a seat on the boat next to each other and their bags fall to the side. Sammy pulls up their intertwined hands and kisses Celina’s. This Celina smiles and ruffles his hair with her free hand laughing. Then she leans over and rests her head on his shoulders. Then she turns her head to look into his eyes and they stare at each other smiling. There’s a feeling of happiness bubbling between the two of them. The scene dissolves again into busts of smoke.




In the next scene that comes to focus, this Celina and this Sammy are standing at the doorway of a new house. The house has a red front door, white walls and a red roof. It’s a modest house with a garden in the front with a swing set. Both Sammy and Celina have keys in their hands and they’re both smiling. They both look at each other and grin. Sammy goes to lift Celina up but fails miserably. They both laugh. Celina then decides to pick up Sammy and bring him in. Carrying him like the newlyweds they were. They laugh about this and Sammy reaches up to kiss her as they get into their new house. Happiness is just radiating out of them. The scene swirls again and disappears into a burst of red smoke, as they’re left kissing on the spot.



In the next scene that comes into view, it’s very obvious that this Sammy and this Celina have aged. They both have some wrinkles. Celina can see Sammy and this Celina in the kitchen. Sammy has an apron on with an apple pattern and he appears to be doing some baking. He pulls out some cakes from the oven. Celina can see that there are two children running the room. As Celina looks closer at the scene she can see the children look unmistakably like them. One baby boy and one baby girl. The boy looks nearly identical to Sammy but with red skin and the girl looks like Celina but with a human skin colour that matches Sammy’s. This Celina is sitting down drinking some tea. Sammy puts his fresh baking from the oven down on the counter. Then he runs his fingers through his uncooked baking batter and begins to chase after the children. He starts running around to catch everyone and put cake matter on their faces. The children are laughing hysterically as they try to avoid Sammy. He manages to get them all and finally runs over to Celina and shoves cake mix on her cheek. Celina laughs and walks over to the cake batter and scoops up a handful of it and throws it towards Sammy. This causes mayhem. The scene starts to fade as everyone is left running around the kitchen trying to throw cake batter at each other.



As the next scene comes to focus, it’s clear Sammy and Celina have aged even more this time around. Both of their wrinkles are more pronounced and their hair is silvery white. They’re both in bed. Both look super frail. Their children have grown up and are now adults. They’re also in the room. Everyone seems to be in the room as it looks like Sammy is not doing so good. Celina is holding on to him and he’s coughing badly.

The music goes slightly quieter in the background and Celina can hear what this older Celina whispers into Sammy’s ear.

“I never regretted one second I spent with you. If I could do it all again I would. I would pick you every time. I love you… always and…”

Sammy struggles but manages to finishes her sentence “....forever”

The scene fades just as Celina can see the smile on both old Celina and Sammy’s face as they hold hands.

Their wedding rings on both their hands are the last to be focused in on before the scene is completely gone.




As the next words of the song play out, suddenly Celina is by herself. She is her normal self. There’s no other Celina or other Sammy. It’s just her standing in a pitch-black room on her own.

Suddenly a spotlight is on her, while the last words of the song play out.

Celina looks around panicked.
She crumples up into a ball on the ground, rain starts to fall from nowhere and time slowly fades.

---

Then suddenly she wakes up. She feels a rush of energy course through her like it zapped through her body. Waking from the end of a bad nightmare. Unable to shake the bad feelings. She looks around and can make out the familiar room she’s staying in. Everything is back to full colour.

Celina can tell now, that it’s early in the afternoon. She decides to get up out of bed and get dressed. She thinks back on her dream. All the what-ifs in her head. She feels regret for the life she could have had and didn’t. A life with no gangs, no running away, no arguments or lies. Just happiness and laughter. She sits thinking on it for some while more. Then after some time, she decides she is finally going to make her way to Thistle Do Nicely, Sammy’s shop for one last visit… it’s time.

She gets to the shop and puts her hand on the door. She's been avoid this place for a while. She hasn't want to be around anything that's reminded her of him. But now is different. She begins to imagine Sammy here. She imagines the smile people would have seen as they walked through the door. The smile that always gave her butterflies. She thinks to the halfling, of the man who risked everything to help her, who joined a gang to pay off her debts and was always so selfless. Who put notices up all around the villages trying to find her when I disappeared for months. This man... who didn’t deserve to die.

After some time wandering around the shop she whispers,
“Sammy… I won’t forget you’’ and paused before adding “...always and forever”.