The Unexpected Letter: a Tale of True Love

He had not been expecting a letter and when he pulled one out of his mailbox he was apprehensive to open it. The return address on it instantly threw him back to a different time and place. Seeing Mattie's name made his heart skip a beat, almost stopping altogether. Over the years he tried to forget about her, but that was easier said than done.

Jeremy started his first day of high school on an ultimate high. His father had purchased a brand new gold Trans Am with a four-barrel V-8 engine. He turned a lot of heads as he pulled into the high school parking lot. He was a good looking young man, muscular and lean, and when Mattie Mitchell first saw him strolling across the street, she was awestruck. Jeremy noticed her too with her long curly brown hair, highlighted with sun-kissed tones and pretty blue eyes.

He had wanted to ask Mattie out the moment he saw her, but she rarely paid attention to him as far as he could tell. They spoke occasionally in the halls, but he figured she wanted nothing to do with him. That soon got to him and that just made him want her more. He finally found the nerve when he ran into her outside the school while skipping class. From that day on they were inseparable spending every day arm in arm for about a year until one day his father laid some life-changing news on him. "I'm sorry son, but my job just transferred me and we will be moving next week," his father told him. Jeremy yelled and begged his father not to do this, but he knew there was no choice. He called and asked Mattie to meet him at the park just down the road from her house so he could break the news.

Jeremy and Mattie held tight to each other as they both cried. The news hit her like a Mack truck and Jeremy swore to figure out a way back to her. They promised each other to wait it out until he could return and they could be together again. She vowed to keep in touch every day until they were together again. That promise didn't last very long. They saw less of each other that next week. She barely spoke to him, always coming up with an excuse to not see him and then she didn't even bother to see him off. Jeremy didn't know that she spent that entire week crying her eyes out every night in her room and the pain of saying goodbye was too great of an ordeal for her to handle. She loved him too much to say goodbye and it was easier to not have to do it again. Jeremy tried to get in touch with Mattie, but she stopped taking his calls. Mattie had moved on almost immediately to try to forget her first love.

As the years passed, some memories faded and both Jeremy and Mattie had moved on. Jeremy had heard through the grapevine that Mattie had gotten married. Jeremy had married, twice, and was now divorced. He was alone now and had been for some time, but during all this time he often wondered what would have happened had him and Mattie been able to stay together.

So here he was, holding this letter tightly in his hands, feeling the ache of a lost love. He wasn't sure if he wanted to open the letter worrying that it would bring memories flooding back that he worked so hard at forgetting. He left that letter sitting on the kitchen table, unopened, for two more days until he just couldn't take it any more. He had to know why she would send him a letter after all this time. He opened the letter and read aloud.

"Dear Jeremy, I'm so sorry it has taken this long to write this letter. You have no idea how much it hurt when you moved and the way I acted was just horrible. I loved you from the first moment I saw you (though I know it didn't seem that way). I have never stopped loving you. I would give anything to have a second chance as you invade my thoughts every moment of every day. Until I see you again, I love you. All my love, Mattie."

Just then the doorbell rang. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Jeremy went to open the door. He couldn't believe that it was Mattie standing on the other side of the door, looking almost exactly as she did the last time he saw her thirty years ago. All the emotions came flooding back and without speaking a word, they fell into each others arms and never let go again.