Dear C.

Childhood days were great, weren't they? Do you remember them? When we would run in the stream buried deep in the trees near my house. We climbed the tall trees and kept watch over a birds nest, making sure that the eggs inside were safe from harm. The little stream was our pride and joy. Do you remember? Do you remember the fort we built from tree branches and rock? Do you remember the beaver dam we found long since abandoned by it's previous occupant? Do you remember the night skies filled with stars and the sound of crickets?

Our parents worried the first night we did not come home. We were young then, perhaps four, and they came searching for us. My parents calling my name, your parents calling yours, screaming into the night, the sound of worry in their voices. We were asleep together, curled up close to keep each other warm near the stream. We woke up and went to our parents. They scolded us, but all was well. The next night we did not return again and again they came looking for us. Do you remember? Over and over again they had to come looking for us. Finally, after sleepless nights, when we were seven, after our fort was made and sturdy, they did not come looking for us. We slept together in our house, arms around each other, jackets over our bodies to keep us warm.

We made a deal that morning. We be home by morning and our parents would let us sleep in our forest by our stream. So every morning we would wake up and run back to our houses. Then meet later to sleep in our forest together. Do you remember?

As we grew, we would go to our forest for different reasons. When we were thirteen we brought a case of beer out there. Do you remember? We were so young and so many embarrassing moments happened in our drunken madness. When we were fifteen, we would smoke there. Laughing and blowing the smoke into the crisp night air. We hid our beer bottles and cigarette butts in a pile in our fort. We would throw everything away weekly. So many things happened in our drunken states. Do you remember? We shared our first kiss there. Despite my intoxicated state at the time, I still remember how it felt to have your lips against mine at that moment. It was amazing. Do you remember?

Now we were older and we had a new reason to come to our forest. We went to make love in the night. We dragged a single person mattress from my house and kept it there. We would drink, we would smoke, we would have sex. We were a normal set of teenagers.

Then college came. Do you remember? We both left town and stopped speaking. For a while, I forgot about you entirely. I was so wrapped in my own issues, my own dramas in college. I assume you were too. We never wrote and we never called, though my parents told me you were "fine" every time I spoke to them. I would nod and move on with my life. I suppose a part of me still worried about you, wondered what became of you.

College came and went, soon enough I was on my own and I remembered you. I got your address and wrote to you. One letter from a city, a grand city, you seemed well, living on your own and doing your own thing much like myself. It had been years since we had seen each other. I wondered if I had any lingering feelings. I think you did too. Do you remember? I drove an hour and you drove an hour, we met for coffee yet no sparks flew. Young love we passed it off as, but we both knew that we loved each other in one way or another.

Now I'm back in our fort. Do you remember? Do you remember this place where so many secrets were told? I was here, back in my home town. My father died and this was the only place I could find solitude. I'll send you this letter and you'll come, you'll come running to my side like you always did. We'll hug and you'll comfort me. Then we'll bring a few drinks, a pack of cigarettes and our troubles to our secret place. We'll sleep here that night together. You know we will. We always did.

Do you remember?