The Unsent Letter by Aleeha Batool 1st year
Won 3rd Position in KELS Annual Story Writing Competition
In the midst of the ugly
mundanity of the world, two pure souls shone in the dark, average and ignorant neighborhood like beacons on an empty
shore on a dark and stormy night. There was Evelyn; a cheery little girl, the
youngest in a family of three. She was open minded and accepting but not naive.
She lived in that neighborhood spreading sweet and tender joy and as often as
she could. Her house was picture perfect. Four bedrooms, a living area and a
lively kitchen. The outside of the house, however was peculiar and had a
mysterious vibe. James, who lived across the road from Evelyn often observed
her quite window and the mystifying house from his own bedroom with intense and
resolute concentration. He was convinced that there was more to it than met his
humble eye. The red door was not merely a red door; it had a deep character to
it that was undeniably thought-provoking. He could never pin point the reasons
though. The house always bothered him. In the back of his mind he was always
trying to uncover the facade that shielded the house. James had often seen
Evelyn around as well. He thought of her as very ordinary. She had never
managed to grasp her attention the way he had grasped hers. She had spent hours
at a time just dreaming about his enigmatic green eyes, his carefree demeanor
and the unsung song that was always on her lips. They had never become good
friends for lack of an excuse to talk. Little did they know that their lives
were about to be changed forever.
As the school year started, Evelyn and James, who both happened
to be on the honour role, got busy with their hectic academics. One very
eventful morning, both of them missed their bus. As fate would have it,
they found themselves in each other's secluded company at the bus stop in their
quite, ordinary and mundane neighbourhood. Evelyn was shy and James
uninterested. Had he not caught her glancing at his lips, he would never
have given her a second thought. His lips suddenly broke into a slight smirk. What
followed after that felt like the melodious song she had always wanted to be
serenaded with. He had not anything remotely intellectual or deep. He only asked,
“Could you try and be less obvious? You are making me shy too. “Evelyn took
those words to heart. She reddened and ran away like a gazelle from a lion. She
ran until she couldn't run any further. Only then did she stop and contemplate
the encounter that had just taken place. She was mortified by her actions and
vowed never to face James again - a promise that would undoubtedly be broken.
She tried to compose herself a little and took in her surroundings. She had
ended up in a deserted house in the darker side of town. On closer observation
she realized that the house was not at all abandoned. There were signs of life
in that apparently lifeless home, places where recent human activity could be
seen. She assumed it was the hooligans trying to channel their inner teenage
angst rebellion through smoke and drugs.
In that deep and overwhelming silence, she suddenly heard a car
pull in in the distance. She froze, unable to think of an escape. Before she
could come back to her senses, the headlights were upon her. The Toyota stopped
just short of her, with its headlights beaming bright in her own radiant face.
Someone slowly and very surely stepped out of the vehicle. In the developing
darkness, she immediately recognized those green eyes anywhere. It was James.
Alice didn't know how to respond to his calm and collected voice which rose in
the silent seclusion and melted her heart once again. He asked her how she had
come across this place. She did not respond. He mysteriously felt at ease with
her. He could not describe the moment of clarity when he realized that she was
friend not foe. She had done nothing to show it but he somehow knew very deeply
that she was a congenial and comforting presence. He started talking about the
house. He described the interior first, in words that only a poet could utter.
Evelyn was falling hard for him yet again. He decided she was someone easy to
talk to. He asked her to take a seat next to him on the porch. She obeyed
complacently and without a second of hesitation. He told her about the first
time he had found this place when he had decided to run away from his house in
seventh grade. The memories suddenly came back to him in a rush of overwhelming
emotion. His eyes shone a little too bright indicating the beginnings of a tear.
She then remembered his pre pubescent face, those gleaming and reflective eyes
ever so radiant and his face full of youthful passion and clear of all marks of
cynicism that the troubling times of adolescence creates. She felt an
undeniable urge to share this with him but steadied herself before the words
came out. Her resistance was futile though, her face conveyed it all in more
eloquence than her tongue could ever conjure. He kept on sharing some of his
most personal and private affairs, linking one story with the next, weaving a
string of anecdotes that were both hilariously entertaining and endearingly
heartwarming. He only stopped once, an ever so slight hint of hesitation when
he was about to tell her about the letter he had found in the house. Apparently
it was a love letter that had returned undelivered to this house. It read,
“Dearest Sally,
I know what I did was incredibly reprehensible. I do not expect
you to forgive me but I hope it with all my heart. I regret my actions. I will
now and always love you with every inch of my existence.
Forever yours,
Damien."
They say in comfortable silence for several minutes before
Evelyn spoke up. She told him a story. Something she made up to explain the
unsent letter. They spent hours talking about the tragedy that lay before them
on a tattered piece of paper. He saw in her an iridescence that he had never
before noticed. He felt himself drawn to her more and more.
As night fell, they realized it was time to part ways. They
tried to delay the goodbye for as long as they could but they knew it was
useless to try to fight time and fate. Their tender meeting came to its
inevitable and unfortunate end. They left with unsaid farewells and a mutual
understanding of how this evening was just a onetime thing. It would forever be
engraved in their memories. That night they spent in wakeful contemplation,
staring at the same moon and sharing the same thoughts. The next time they saw
each other, they had been made strangers by the tides of time and no amount of
mundane and polite conversation could ever change that.
0 comments