Malia's Letter
Channel: thecast: life video blog
Date: 2010-08-04

I've always wanted to get back in touch with this girl. But I haven't been able to. I only know her first name.

She handed me this letter before spring break. She said not to read it until I got on the bus. I put it in my bag and it fell out of my mind until I got home and unpacked my backpack.

I almost cried. My lips were trembling and my eyes were wet. It was the tenderest thing anyone had done for me. The paper itself, the folds, the handwriting, the message, is tender and careful. There are puppies on it. It has been carried so lightly that to even this day there is no mark that it had ever been touched since it was written. The letter is precious to me. There are spelling errors and things are stated so simply. We were young.

We used to eat lunch together every other day when our lunchtimes were lined up. When I got back from spring break, she wasn't there. Two weeks passed and she wasn't there. I ate lunch alone. Sometimes I ate it in the classroom with my physics teacher. The kids were nice, but I didn't feel close to them. My only friends in school were some of the teachers that I liked.

After a month had passed, she came back. She had lost a lot of weight. She said her appendix burst over the break and she went into a coma. She said to keep it a secret, because she didn't want everyone in school to know her because of it. For some reason I never remembered the letter she wrote me. It had been too long. She told me new stories. I told her new stories. Our relationship was better and new and exciting, but the letter went by unstated.

At the end of the school year I told her I was moving away. She was sad. She said she had been looking forward to spending the next few years with me. I never saw her again.