Meet me Underneath the Pear Tree

Not long after she arrived she watched him ride off in the distance. She waited too long. She felt as though a wave had crashed over her, her entire world stopped spinning and she was left motionless. She stood there holding her ever growing belly while the rain poured down upon her, her wet hair slowly fell upon her face. Leaning against the Pear tree she slid down and held her knees, looking, willing, and hoping that he could sense that she was here. That she was right here where they agreed they’d meet. She sat until she couldn’t stand the cold wet clothes clinging to her body.

“Dear Chris, I hope this letter finds you well. I will never tell our daughter that you left us. You didn’t leave us, you had no choice. You made it clear in the beginning what you had planned for your future. What you didn’t know is, I had plans for our future the day we met. I knew that I wanted to be with you and only you. I could see our life far away from here. The only thing is, you are already there and we are still here. I check the mail each and every day, in hopes that you will write back to me. Our girl is getting big, we just celebrated her second birthday, I miss you. All my love, Sadie”

“Ding ding ding ding '' Chatter filled the halls as kids piled out of the classrooms. The end of the school day was always my favorite day, I couldn’t wait to go home and play with my dog and my Friend Charlie. “Pollie, sweetie, over here!” My mama shouted with a soft smile and wave as I stepped out of the front doors. She stood there with her arms wide open waiting for me. I embraced her warm hug full of love. “Are you ready to head home? Buck is waiting for you.” I looked up at her with my toothless smile and nodded my head in excitement. “Alright, let's go home then.”

Buck was waiting for me when I got home, just like mama said. He was wagging his tail happily, as soon as I pulled open that screen door, I threw my bookbag down and tossed my pink coat onto the chair by the door. Buck and I ran outside to play and go get Charlie. We lived on farm land and we had fields for days to play in, we had fruit trees and hay fields to get lost in. We would be outside for hours, but as soon as Mama would call for us, we’d head back in and wash up for supper.

“Dear Chris, So many exciting things are happening. Pollie had her first day of first grade, she’s awfully bright, just like you I tell her. She’s working on her writing, she’s real good at it too. I think she may have a future there if she wishes. She has your brown eyes, Chris. I may have already told you that. I’ve lost track of all the things I’ve said in my letters to you. I keep sending them to the address you gave me before you left. I hope you’re getting them. Not for me at this point, for Pollie, she deserves to have her Dad be a part of her life. I tell her stories of you, of us. Every night she crawls up in her bed and asks me to tell her the story of how we met and fell in love, so I do. Pollie and Buck are inseparable, she sure loves that dog. Chris, I really hope that you are at least reading my letters, that you are getting them, it’s been years. Please, if you read this, write to me. I’m in the same place I was when we met. I miss you. All my love, Sadie.” Mama wrote to Chris every week, usually on a Friday unless something exciting happened then she’d write to him while it was still fresh.

“Pollie, can you please just sit still so I can get a good picture of you in your uniform?” Mama asked while she was holding her camera

“I’m sorry mama, it's just riding up and it’s uncomfortable.” I said, trying to fix the skirt of my cheerleading uniform.

“Oh dear, well maybe we ought to get it in a tad bit bigger size. What do you think?” Mama asked while she helped smooth the back of my skirt out.

“Mama, thank you but I’m fine, I’ll stop fidgeting.” I said meeting mama’s warm gaze.

“Okay, now, smile.”

“Dear Chris, Pollie started her first year on the cheerleading team. I am so proud of her, you would be too if you saw her. I put a picture of her in her uniform along with this letter so you can see how much she’s grown. I can’t believe she is in Highschool now, I feel like it was just yesterday she was born. So little and so sweet. She’s a good kid, Chris. I wish you could feel how much I miss you. I’m so sorry I was late. I wish I could have gotten to the meeting place in time. I really do. Everyday I re-watch you driving away. You didn’t look back, Chris, not once. I was only a few minutes behind you. Chris, Why haven’t you written to me? I’m still here, the same place I’ve always been. My life changed the day you left. My plans changed the day you left. These letters change every day I don’t hear from you. I can only hope they are finding you. I miss you. All my love, Sadie.”

Mama used to look forward to writing her letters to Chris. As time went on, it seemed as though she started to dread it. It didn’t take long for me to realize that their love wasn’t as mama made it out to be. She was heartbroken and she never recovered.

“Mama?”

“Yes, baby.”

“Why do you keep writing to him? I’m not a little kid anymore, you don’t have to keep updating him on our life.”

“Hmm, I suppose to me, it’s the only way I can feel any sort of connection to your father. I’m thankful for him, if it wasn’t for our time together that summer, I wouldn’t have the best gift this universe had to give me.” Mama reached across the old round table in the kitchen and placed her hand under my chin. “You.” She added.

“Dear Chris, I’m sad to say that this will be my last letter to you. I need to focus on the time I have left with Pollie. She’s going off to college in California, not far from where you’re at. I haven’t told her that of course. Soon it’ll just be me here in this big old house on this big old farm. Buck is still here too, so I guess it’ll be the both of us. Charlie and Pollie have been dating for awhile now and I’m sure it’ll be just a matter of time before they decide to get married and possibly start a family of their own. I hope they’ll be happy. I hope my baby finds true love and happiness. Charlie is a good kid, he’d go to the end of the earth for our Pollie and I know it. If you get this letter, please do me one favor, meet me at the pear tree on the 20th anniversary of our departure. I would love to see you and to know that you’re well. As always, I miss you. All my love, Sadie.”

Mama wasn’t wrong, Charlie did propose and I said yes. We didn't get married right away, we needed to make sure we stayed on track and went to California to go to college. I started writing, just like Mama.

“Dear Mama, I miss you. College is so cool, there are so many people here and I get turned around multiple times a day just getting to class. Charlie and I are wanting to come home for the holiday. Any chance there is room for us to stay? Please give Buck some love for me, I wish I could have taken him with me, but he is more comfortable at home where he’s been the past sixteen years. I Love you, Mama. All my love, Pollie.”

Time goes by faster when you're an adult than it does when you’re a kid. The Holidays came and went and I missed Mama the second I stepped out of the old screen door on the covered porch. I didn’t much care for California, Charlie on the other hand seemed to enjoy it. We would explore different parts of the state on our weekends. While we were in this little town named Sausalito window shopping on the Bayfront I got stopped by a woman who owned a small shop.

“Hey! You look familiar, have we met?” The shop owner asked.

“I don’t believe so, this is the first time we’ve been here, we’re from Alabama originally.” I said

“I know I’ve seen your face before, what’s your name?”

“Pollie.”

“Oh my goodness… Pollie?! Hold on, don’t go anywhere!” The shop owner stepped into a back room in her shop for a few minutes before returning with a pile of letters in a box. “I knew I saw you before.” She said as she was shuffling through the letters. “See, that’s you.” She added showing me a picture of myself in my cheerleading uniform.

“How did you get this? This was sent to my father years ago?” I couldn’t believe that this lady had the letters Mama Sent Chris.

“They’ve been sent here every week, if not more for nineteen years. We just bought the place ohh about ten years ago. They stopped coming through, the last one was about nine months ago.”

“Do you know my father? Chris Banks?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t say that I do. We bought the place from an agency so I don’t have the seller's information. I thought about writing Miss Sadie, but there was no return address on the envelopes and she never signed her last name.” I thanked the lady and took the letters home with me. I read them all, Mama had so much love for Chris in every letter she wrote, on some you could see the tear marks from her crying as she wrote.

“Dear Mama, we found your letters. I have them all Mama. I have your letters and I have a letter for you from Daddy. Please meet me under your and Daddy’s Pear Tree, you need to read his letter. I miss you. All my love, Pollie.”

Mama died on my way to see her, they say it was a heart attack, I say it was from a broken heart. I sat there under that tree picturing the night Chris left and Mama ended up staying behind. As I sat alone, I read his letter to Mama.

“Dear Sadie, I know this letter isn’t what you’re wanting and it is not what you deserve. I have received your letters and I’ve read them too. Please know that I will always remember our time together that Summer. While in California I have found a new love. Sadie, I’ve asked her to be my wife. She doesn’t know about your daughter and I prefer it stays that way. Our love wasn’t supposed to last, it was supposed to be summer fun. I didn’t wait for you, Sadie. I just got in the car and left. Please understand that this life here is the life I had planned. You can go on with yours and I’ll go on with mine. Stop sending letters because I’m done reading them. -Chris”

In a way I’m glad Mama never read his letter, in her mind he always loved her. I miss you Mama. All my love, Pollie.