Jimmy got taller than me. Quieter too.
Then came his 18th birthday.
I walked into the kitchen and stopped.
Jimmy was already there, standing by the table with an envelope in his hand.
He held out the envelope.
One look at his face and my stomach dropped.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
He swallowed. "I found something in the attic. Two weeks ago."
He held out the envelope.
The second I saw the handwriting, the room tilted.
Laura.
The letter was yellow at the folds.
I knew it before I read the name. I had not held anything new in her handwriting in fourteen years, and my hands started shaking before I even touched it.
I took it and said, "Where did you find this?"
"In one of the boxes from her apartment." His voice was tight. "There was another letter too. For me."
"You opened it?"
"Mine, yeah. It said not to give you yours until my 18th birthday. I waited."
The letter was yellow at the folds.
The letter was yellow at the folds.
If you are reading this, something happened before I could say this in person.
I had to stop there and breathe.
Laura wrote that she had been meaning to talk to me. Not just as a friend. She said she had gone to see an attorney because she wanted to make sure Jimmy would be placed with me if anything happened to her. She wrote that she trusted me more than anyone else in the world.
Jimmy stepped forward fast like he thought I might fall out of the chair.
Then I got to the part that broke me.
I know you loved me. I need you to know I loved you too.
Jimmy stepped forward fast like he thought I might fall out of the chair.
Laura wrote that she had been scared. Scared to ask me for too much. Scared to hand me a life that already came with so much weight. But she said I was never extra in Jimmy's life. I was the safest part of it.
Then Jimmy quietly said, "There's more."
"What did she say to you?"
He handed me another set of papers.
Adult adoption forms. Printed recently. Filled out in Jimmy's careful handwriting except for the signatures.
CONTINUE READING...>>
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