The Last Letter

When they met in October, the leaves were golden, and the air smelled like a change. Emma was at lunchtime and sat on a park bench with novels and warm coffee. Daniel followed Nie. He decided that pigeons earned more sandwiches than her. The sandwich lands near Emma's shoes, then there is a man apologizing with messy hair and laughter.

"I'm sorry," he said. "She's generous to blame."

Emma smiled. "The pigeon finds a loyal friend."

He laughed, and was with her for a long time after leaving something about how his eyes crumpled.

The second time they met was accidental or perhaps a gentle force of destiny. Same park, same bank, a week later. This time he was sitting next to her with two coffees. "I thought I owed you one."

From that day on, at the bank. You entertained every Wednesday. About books and music, a little bit of heartache and wonderful dreams. Emma was a high school literature teacher. Daniel worked in a small community theater, built sets and performed at times in short periods. Both had scars they didn't show first - from the recent separation that he suspected everything, his slow loss of his mother to Alzheimer's. , but they did not rush it. Her love developed in chapters - slow, careful, full of importance.

We spent the weekend together from

. A meal that cooks from scratch ends on top of the best movie and falls asleep mid-conversation. Daniel begins to read the novel Emma loved, and he learns to recognize all the emotions behind his gentle appearance. They weren't perfect. He retired on his own, especially after visiting the hospital. Fearing that she would be left behind, Emma would even reconsider her silence. But they spoke. You've always spoken.

One spring night, under street lights flickering like an old movie. He kissed her and said, "I think I'll love you forever."

And she believed in him.

It was blissful for a while.

Then, at the end of August, Emma found the envelope. It was not hidden - just at the kitchen counter, addressed to her by Daniel's handwritten. She opened it and thought it was a birthday card. Instead, it was a letter.

"If you read this, it means I can't tell you personally. I was sick. I didn't know how to say it without actually doing it. The test came back a few months ago. It's rare and aggressive. We didn't want to be a countdown together. I just wanted to live in our moment, not in the diagnosis.

You gave me something: doctors, no medicine, no prayers - peace. One reason to smile in the middle of a storm. I'm sorry I wasn't given the time. But I promise I gave you everything I had.

I love you every time, Daniel. "

She collapsed to the ground and held the letter as if he could get it back.

After that, he was gone. But love remained. He bought this first drink in a cafe, in a book he had never read together, one night in a small theatre where he was sitting in the back row and screaming the pieces he once played together. I passed years.

She returned to the park bench in a cloudy October. A young girl fed the pigeon nearby, and the air again smelled of change. Emma grabbed her in her pocket and pulled out a new letter - what she wrote. "Dear Daniel,

I'm fine. Not every day, but enough.

I'm still talking in my head.

Even though it hurts, I'm laughing even more now.

Thank you for telling me.

I will always take you with me.

Love Emma. “

She placed a letter under the bank, not for those who exist for the universe, but in a crack in which the wood was divided.