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Farewell Lanna


Lanna is now waiting in her home with the yellow-orange envelope wrapped in her arms. For some odd reason, she feels extremely nervous. Even more nervous than being on stage. The songs that the envelope holds were written in only a matter of a few days. Will it be enough to impress the manager who will be coming in only a few short minutes.

But the thing that worries her the most is her choice. Right now, she has decided to hand in her work, and continue being a pop idol. But even though she had already made her decision, she is still not sure if it's the best choice, and begins having second thoughts. She closes her eyes, and imagines coming back to Sunny Island, and finds that Mark has gotten married to Chelsea. She knows that she will be gone for at least a year with no hope of coming back before then.

A knock on her door snaps her back into reality. She knows that the only person who could be at the other side of that door is her manager. She sighs stressfully as she reaches for the knob, and opens the door allowing the overly dressed middle aged man, and his two bodyguards in.

She serves them some tea to lighten the mood before anything is said. After tea, Lanna and her manager sits at the opposite ends of the coffee table quietly for a brief moment. Afterwards, the manager rests his chin against his knuckles, and says in a clam stern voice, “So, how has the past week been? Did you finish the lyrics as promised?”

The finished product rests on Lanna's lap. She knows that at this moment, she'll have to make a solid decision, and live with the outcome. For a moment, she thought about telling her manager a lie, and say that she didn't finish. That way, she would be fired, and she could stay in Sunny Island forever.

But then she thought about the millions of fans who are waiting for her. Is it fair to be selfish, and forget about her career so easily? How will she explain to Mark who has helped her finish her work, so just simply throw it all away? With either choice, she risks losing so much.

She closes her eyes, and trembles for a minute. The manager raises an eyebrow, wondering what's on Lanna's mind. But then, Lanna remembers what Mark told her earlier. Mark said, “I'd wait for you, even if I spend the rest of my life waiting.”

Remembering those words puts her at ease. She believes those words. And even if Mark doesn't wait for her, then she knows that he isn't the right guy for her after all. So she feels that the best thing to do, is to finish what she had started, and see if Mark will honestly wait for her. So she opens her chocolate brown eyes full of confidence, and slides the envelope towards her manager.

“I just finished the other day. I really tried hard, so I'm sure you'll like them.”

He nods at Lanna's promise, and opens the envelope to review what she has done. Song after song, Lanna's manager reviews each lyric with a fine tooth comb seeing if what Lanna has created will be good enough for the fans to enjoy. As he reviews each song, he does not change his expression. He has a very serious look on his face as he reads each poetic line.

This makes Lanna feel very nervous. She wonders if her hard work was in vain, and all that she accomplished was to embarrass herself. She folds her hands, and prays for a good sign. A smile, a nod, some comforting words. Anything that would put Lanna's mind at ease.

After he reviews everything, he places the lyrics on the table, and lights a cigar. Lanna cringes in fear expecting him to yell and tell her how bad her work is. But after a puff of the cigar, Lanna's manager says, “So, how long do you think it will take to write and compose the music for these lyrics?”

Lanna gasps, and lets out a sigh of relief. “I don't know for sure. If we're fast. . . Maybe a month?” she answered after calming down.

Her manager returns the lyrics to the envelope, and places them in his briefcase. He then stands up and says, “Congratulations, you have really outdone yourself. I'm proud of you Lanna.”

She then gasps with an excited glow in her eyes. She has never heard her manager praise her like that before. She feels that she really left an impression on him if he praised her that much. She wipes a tear from her eye, she is so happy that she could hardly contain herself.

“Start packing, we leave in two hours.” said her manager, completely killing her happy mood.

“Two hours?” asked Lanna. “You mean, leave the island in two hours? But. . . That's so sudden! Can't I have a few days to say goodbye to all my friends?”

Lanna's manager rests a hand on her shoulder, and says in a gentle voice, “Lanna, I would love to give you a few days off to say goodbye to your friends. After all, you have spent two years on this island. But please understand that we have a lot of work ahead of us. The more we wait, the harder it will be to get you as popular as you once were. We have so many places to go, people to see, and lots of interviews to do. There just isn't any time for goodbyes. Do you understand?”

She knows what the manager is trying to tell her. But just leaving without saying anything doesn't seem fair either. She knows that Mark is probably in his farm cooking that huge fish she caught yesterday. And all her fans who will miss her once she's gone, what would they think? However, she did decide to go back to the life of a pop idol, and sudden departures are part of the job.

“I understand.” said Lanna in a sad tone.

“Fantastic.” said her manager. “Pack only the things you need, I'll send someone to pick up the rest of your thing later.”

Lanna's manager then grabs his cell phone, and starts making calls to people. Lanna walks over to her room, and begins packing her dresses and other things she'll need. As she was going through her things, she found a photo album that she has been keeping since high school.

While the manager is distracted, Lanna takes a moment to look back at things she did as a pop idol. She already removed any pictures of her old lover long ago, so there is nothing to remind her of any painful memories. However, the photo album ended sometime after she went to visit her hometown. She realizes that since then, she has not taken any photographs at all. Because she has been working for two straight years, she doesn't even have any photographs of anyone or anything in Sunny Island. Not even a photograph of Mark.

Noticing that, she feels a bit depressed and foolish. She begins to ask herself why didn't she do many fun things while since she came on the island? Trying so hard to force ideas to come out, she missed nearly every festival, and spent nearly all day cooped up inside her house with only a brief moment everyday to get some exercise and sun. She is now wishing that she had become part of the community, and did stuff with everyone else.

After two hours, Lanna looks at her clock, and notices that it's 1:30pm. She was hoping that she could at least wait until 2:00pm so that Mark could deliver her lunch, but she could no longer hold out any longer. Her manager wants to leave, and he wants to leave now.

Lanna continues to feel sad and depressed on the way to the beach where the helicopter waits for her. Her manager is still on the phone, so he doesn't even notice how Lanna feels about leaving so suddenly. One of the guys working for Lanna's Manager stays behind to have Lanna's belongings moved to her hometown. Even though she doesn't want to go just yet, she decided to do this in the end. For Mark, and for her fans. Just before she boards the helicopter, she looks back, and whispers, “Goodbye Mark. . .”

She turns around, and tries to board the chopper, but she stops as soon as she hears her name being called in the distance. She quickly realizes that it was Mark's voice she heard. She looks back again, and sees Mark and Chelsea running to her as fast as they could. She tells the pilot to wait, and runs over to meet them halfway in the beach.

After Mark and Chelsea catches their breath, Mark asks, “Lanna, you're leaving already?”

“You're not even going to say goodbye?” asked Chelsea.

She nods and answers, “Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't mean so suddenly, but I have a lot of work to catch up. It's all part of the job, I didn't mean to sneak away.”

Mark smiles at Lanna, and says, “It's okay, I understand. I'm just glad that I caught up with you on time. I tried to surprise you and bring you lunch early so the three of us can eat together, but you wasn't at the house. Someone said that you'd be here, so we ran as fast as we could.” He then presented the packed lunch and continues, “If you're going to leave, then take this with you. Consider this a goodbye gift.”

Lanna blushes as she accepts her gift. It's no different than any other gift she had received before, but knowing that he went out of his way to make sure that she got it makes her feel special. She then nods, and reaches into her pocket. She pulls out a small photograph of herself, and places it in Marks hands. “I want you to have this, so that you won't forget me.”

Mark stares at the photograph, and says, “Are you sure I can have this? You never give a photograph of yourself to anyone, not even your fans!”

“How did you know that?” asked Lanna. Mark then pulls out a magazine with Lanna's profile on it. Lanna then giggles joyfully as she remembers that it was her idea for Mark to read her profile so that he could get to know her better. Afterwards, Mark and Chelsea properly said their goodbyes, and Lanna boards the helicopter so that she may continue her career as a pop idol.

As the helicopter flies off, Lanna looks down at the beach to see Mark and Chelsea wave goodbye to her. She places a hand on he glass window, and whispers to herself, “Mark, thank you for everything. You have always been kind to me, made sure I ate well every day, and even inspired me to do my best when I was about to give up. You are the one who filled the empty hole in my heart, I didn't want to admit I had. Please wait for me. I'll come back for you, I promise.”

Lanna continued to watch them wave at her until she can no longer see them. She then sighs, and opens up her lunch. With every bite she takes, she recalls an event she had with Mark. She only hopes that she made the best decision, and will do her best so that she can return to Sunny Island someday.

To be continued.