I'd perhaps like to try to get some people on here to crit on this story
for me. I plan on entering it into a contest (not the Cerberus et
Cerberus contest)... So can I please get some opinions or something on
this, okies? ~Brynn
Crawl outta the lurking, hmmm?
===========================
The Final Letter
By: Brynn Stewart
(Aka Raven Scorpio)
Josh sighed deeply as he sat down on the bed. He slowly took a letter
out of his pocket and looked at it with tears in his eyes. He lifted it
to his nose and inhaled deeply. He could smell the sexy yet slightly
sweet perfume that was sprayed on it; the same fragrance that intoxicated
him when he first noticed Cara was wearing it. His name was written in
the same neat handwriting he had known. He had found the letter searching
through some drawers in their room earlier that day, but he put off
opening it up until now. It was time to finally read the letter, he
thought to himself.
He slowly opened up the light pink envelope, careful not to rip the
contents inside. After he opened the evelope, he took out the letter and
put the evelope on the bed next to him. While staring at the letter, it
too was written in that same beautiful flowing handwriting on cute kitten
stationary.
Cara had loved kittens, he remembered fondly. Josh could see in his
mind's eye, the look on her face when he brought her home a little kitten
for her twentieth birthday. Her whole face lit up as she carefully took
the little kitten in her arms, thanked him enthusiastically and kissed
him gently on the mouth. Cara had named the kitten Tabitha because she
was a sprightly little tabby kitten.
Josh remembered that like Tabitha, Cara was the same way. She had a
wonderfully vibrant spirit in her. He shut his eyes tightly, remembering
how vivacious and bubbly she had been when he first met her. His brave
little warrior, yet not strong enough to overcome what eventually ended
it for her, after so long a battle. He slowly opened his eyes to see a
little four-legged figure come walking into the room meowing up at him.
"Oh, Tabitha," he said to the cat, "What am I going to do now that Cara
isn't here anymore? How am I to live without her?" Tabitha sensed how
shaken and distraught he was, so she jumped up onto the bed and crawled
into his lap, rubbing her little furry head against his arm to be
stroked.
Tears were still creeping down his face as more memories of her came
flooding back to him. He softly stroked Tabitha and she purred softly,
perfectly content to be near him. He slowly looked at the words on the
paper and made himself try to read it. He could not. He didn't want to
bring himself to believe she was really gone. But he knew he had to, so
he took a deep breath and carefully read the letter:
"Dear Joshua, I know you are terribly upset right now, but what else
could I do? We both knew it was coming and we both knew it was
inevitable. Oh, how I miss you and miss feeling your arms around me. I
want you to take care of Tabitha for me, all right? Don't you dare give
her away; she loves you very much. I'm just very sorry that I couldn't
fight it, I guess I just wasn't strong enough�"
Josh lowered the letter and raised his eyes up to the ceiling. He
couldn't bring himself to read anymore of it. It hurt him too much, but
she had cared for him more than anyone else had, so he knew he just had
to read it; he owed it to her. He shook his head, trying to get the
memories of her out of his head because it was all just too painful for
him to deal with. But instead of discarding the letter, he continued
reading:
"�Please think of me often, as I know where I will be, I most certainly
will of you. You meant everything to me, Joshua, and I hope you will
always remember that. You were everything to me. We were made for each
other; I know that, now. But just look at it this way, I will see you
again someday. Just remember, I'll be here, waiting for you�"
Josh stopped stroking her, gave the cat a push away, and put his head in
his hands. He could not believe this was all happening. She was really
gone, forever. It was like some bad dream that he would hopefully wake
up from soon, to find Cara sleeping soundly right next to him. But he
knew that would never happen. He would never have her sleeping body next
to his ever again. It was all too real. Too real, too soon. It was then
that it hit him. He had loved her. He thought back to the times they
spent together, but he couldn't remember one time they had told each
other they loved one another.
"No!" he cried. He stood up and yelled, "I loved you, Cara! I loved
you and you had to go and leave me!" Tabitha got startled because of
Josh's yelling, jumped off the bed, and ran out of the room. He didn't
care now. He was hysterical at the thought that he never told Cara he
loved her.
"Why hadn't I?" He yelled at himself. "Why!" He began to get angry at
his foolishness for not telling her her loved her, and for her leaving
him. He collasped back down and sat on the bed to finish reading the
letter:
"�Whatever you do, my love, please remember this, I do love you, and I
always will. I am sorry I never told you, but I was scared. Scared of
what I knew was going to happen to me. I didn't want to make it even
harder for you if I had professed my love to you. It pains me to write
this, because I am gone now but you will always have memories of me, my
love, and you will always have my heart, even though I am not with you.
I will always be looking down on you, making sure you are all right, so
if you feel like someone is guarding you, you can bet it'll be me, my
dear heart. I will always love you, Joshua. Love Eternally, Cara�"
Josh finished reading the letter and he was completely speechless. He
could not believe she had actually loved him, but was too afraid to tell
him, just as he had been! He knew when he got together with her that she
would possibly pass away sooner or later, but he grew to love her, and
wanted to be with her as much as possible before the end would come for
her. She was too young. She was taken away from his arms too soon.
Josh looked up at the ceiling, thinking about God, wondering why he had
to have Cara up there with him, instead of letting him tell her just how
much she meant to him. Josh shook his head, trying to control his anger
and fusteration.
"Oh Cara," Josh whispered to the empty room around him. At the bottom
of the letter there was a little something written. He began to read it,
very carefully so as not to mess up what he was reading:
"�P.S. Joshua, in all my twenty-one years I had never been as happy as I
had been with you. I am glad I had a chance to love you and live to
twenty-one than not to love you and live till seventy or eighty. One
more thing before I end this letter. If you look in the drawer below the
drawer where you found this letter, you will see a small box. That box
is filled with letters, pictures, drawings and whatever else the two of
us had shared together. I want you to look them over, because on the
back of each I wrote a small comment or two. Please don't forget me�"
Josh felt as though his heart had been torn out. He reached down to the
drawer where the letter said to, and inside, just as the letter said,
there was a box. He lifted up the box, and as soon as he did, he was hit
with her perfume's fragrance again. He peered inside and there were many
pictures.
He lifted one up and as he looked at it, he realized it was taken when
she had turned sixteen and they first met. They were splashing water at
each other in her family's pool. Then there were other pictures of the
two of them together, both of them with grins on their faces, with no
hair. Josh remembered vividly the time he shaved off all his hair,
because Clara had lost her hair from the injections she had to take for
the breast cancer inherited from her mother.
Four hours, many pictures and many memories later, Josh was exausted and
asleep on the bed. All the pictures, letters and drawings all strewn all
around him, along with Tabitha lying next to his left arm.
Josh was asleep, when he had a dream about Cara. He smelled her perfume
before he saw her. She seemed to float into the bedroom, while he was
lying on the bed with the pictures spread around him. As she looked at
him, she smiled softly as her eyes shined bright blue. He looked up at
her and was about to say something, but Cara put her first finger to her
lips for him not to say anything. She slowly crawled into bed with him
and snuggled close. He wrapped his arms around her and shut his eyes
tightly, not ever intending to let go.
An hour later, Josh woke up to find himself all alone except for
Tabitha. He sat up and slowly picked up the last picture that was in the
box. He looked at the picture to see it was of himself, and Cara in the
backyard, smiling and happy, as he remembered her at the age of seventeen
before she started to lose her hair. She had shoulder length beautiful,
blonde hair and big bright blue eyes to contrast his shiny black hair and
green eyes.
As Josh looked at the picuture of the two of them, he couldn't help but
get angry at God for taking her away; his dear, sweet, innocent Cara.
The one who he knew now, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with,
but most certainly couldn't.
A week after finding the note, on a warm and sunny day Josh visited the
cemetary where Cara was buried; appropriately beside her mother and
father. As he slowly bent down to place a bouquet of roses on her grave,
the wind blew a gentle breeze, and on that breeze Josh heard Cara's sweet
voice:
"Remember you will always be my soul mate, and my one and only true
love. Eternally�"
He looked around himself and shut his eyes, looking up at the bright
blue sky and whispered to her grave, "I most certainly will, my dearest
love, Cara�" And with that, he walked slowly away, somehow knowing that
Cara was in heaven smiling down on him, knowing he had loved her.
(1867 words)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper
until drops of blood form on your forehead.
--Gene Fowler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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