Platform 9 ¾ represented hope to me.
Sometimes people would hit a wall in life and it would make them want to either quit or face their fear and get past that wall. When I read Harry Potter the first time as a kid I didn't quite grasp on that idea until grandpa surprised me with the first movie adaptation.
I remember the moment like it just happened. He came back from work with a bag in his hand, he hid it right away when he saw me. I asked him what he was hiding, he told me it was a VHS… I asked him if it was contagious and he laughed, hugged me and gave me the bag singing Happy Birthday the way he always did. It sounded a little like Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday my favorite Juice, I love you more than how my teeth are loose.
Turns out the VHS was a tape and we watched the first Harry Potter on my birthday. I saw that scene when he passes through the brick wall between platforms 9 and 10 and it just filled me up with hope. How you might think you're about to hit a wall but really it was just your obstacle into a whole world of what's magical.
I was a hopeful kid, I would wake up on a sunny day and clear skies but it never made me stop from wishing it would rain.
Along the way, I lost all my hope in the world. I bumped into bad friends, I learned that my parents drowned trying to save each other and I was called whatever words that referred to how fat and or ugly I am. That probably was a factor in the rocky relationship Blue and I had at first.
Blue's hands down the most beautiful person I've seen and people agree with that. She always tried to tell me that if looks mattered then she would've ended up with better people but I always dismissed that. I just wanted people to stop looking at me after admiring how beautiful she is then asking me what in the world went wrong with my face and body!
The thing that brought me and Blue together was when one day I noticed that she was sleeping with her eyes fully closed, which was strange because she sleeps with her eyes a little open. That freaked me out; I thought there was something wrong with her.
I woke grandpa up that day and we took her to the hospital where we found out she was low on sugar. I bought her a donut from the hospital's cafeteria and she was obsessed with them ever since… so much, she smelled donuts in the air whenever she craved some ever since.
It was donuts that made me attend the film class I saw Bliss in when she read her poem. I smelled donuts and thought my nose was as broken as Blue's but the teacher in that class was giving free donuts to those who'd stay and watch Hugo. I went in for the movie… and a donut, I love free stuff.
I remember Bliss knocking on the door and standing in front of the class. She simply unfolded her poem… ehm story and was shaking so badly I just wanted to hold her. She read her poem and it hit me somewhere in my heart.
It bothered me that her dad didn't like her at first, it bothered me that her dad died and she ended up with regrets. Then it gave me such joy when she said her dad tried to make up for her tears with laughter and it killed me that she was afraid of the dark and her dad was the sort of light she needed.
When the teacher escorted her out I wanted to go after her but I already took a bite from my donut and we were promised donuts if we stayed and watched the movie.
When I saw Bliss at that parking building that day, it reminded me of platform 9 ¾ because I was hoping I'd run into her again. For some reason ever since that day, something happened around Bliss that made me believe in hope even more.
When she told me about her dad's face scar and how students in her school mocked him so much but it was her heaven to see his face… and a lot more.
How she was afraid of talking to the theatre manager to play Harry Potter for me and asked Iris to do it was the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me.
I know Danielle and how she acts when something that affects her greatly goes wrong… Her granny's hospital was the first hospital we went to, the wrong one. I wish I could deliver that piece of information to Bliss but she's nowhere to be found.
Ammo Hail from the parking building told us she'd needed some time off and he and some summer job kids are covering for her. He suggested we shouldn't sweat the visit to the parking building and try her apartment. But we went to her apartment and knocked and rang the bell constantly yet she never answered.
I don't want to lose hope again and Bliss was this tangible fragment of hope that I'd always want to have.