Love Letter

I met my husband when I was just small. I don't really remember this. What I remember is my brother-in-law. He was my Montessori classmate, fourth grade competition, high school football player, and later, toted me to college parties and bedded my closest friend.

I remember meeting my husband somewhere in the middle.

I recall meeting his Girlfriend at 14, maybe 15. She was older than me and flooded me with light that made me feel important. She wrote me a note once that I referred to often..."I'll think of you whenever the sun shines." I thought she really meant it.

A year or two later my future husband sent me a letter, a crudely folded lump of notebook paper, through a mutual friend. A friend who would be part of my future for years to come.
The letter was about squirrels.

He wore my earrings in gym class. There were rumors he still had the Girlfriend...but he kept writing me and hinted to my Homecoming date that I might be taken...

We played badminton and I met his tattooed friends. We traded shirts and went to parties.

He went to college.

I continued to live. I had adventures that both involved him and did not. I drove to visit him and got lost with his brother. I imagined he would someday be an artist of some sort, unmarried and wandering.

I went to college...at the same university. Our relationship moved quickly beyond squirrels...and then ended quickly, the results of which rendered me fairly useless for quite a while.

I moved on, as did he. We both envisioned our lives with other people. Other places. I got greek. I learned that I was an outcast sorority girl. I abandon them for greener (or blacker) pastures. There was a fabulous man in my life for many years but we couldn't quite make it work.

Here is where it gets interesting...