Chapter 5 - THE LETTERS DANIEL NEVER SENT
Clara called me on a Thursday evening.
Her voice sounded strange.
“Nathan?”
“Hey.”
“Are you busy?”
“No. What's wrong?”
She hesitated.
“I found something.”
I sat down.
“What?”
“Letters.”
I waited.
“Daniel wrote them before he died.”
My chest tightened.
“Clara…”
She began crying.
“I didn't know.”
I drove to her apartment.
She opened the door wearing an oversized sweater.
Her eyes were red.
On the coffee table sat a small wooden box.
Inside were twelve envelopes.
Each labeled with a different occasion.
For your birthday.
For a bad day.
For the first Christmas without me.
For when you laugh and feel guilty.
For when someone tells you to move on.
And one that made my throat tighten.
For when you fall in love again.
Clara stared at it.
“I can't open that one.”
I sat beside her.
“You don't have to.”
She looked at me.
“What if he wanted me to forget him?”
I shook my head.
“Clara.”
She began crying.
“What if moving forward means losing him?”
I took her hand.
“It doesn't.”
She looked at me.
I continued.
“Love doesn't disappear because life keeps happening.”
For a long moment, she stared.
May you like
Then she leaned against my shoulder.
And I stayed until she fell asleep.
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