'"Mrs. Smith? Remind me again why we have to learn how to use a form of communication that's going to be obsolete by the time we're old enough to start working?" Adonis asked. Mrs. Smith stopped handing out papers and looked at the 10 year old that she had coined an absolute smartass. That's not to say he wasn't a delight to teach but good lord this child knew how to talk. Luckily she had an answer this time.
"Well firstly dear, it's because the government issued syllabus made it clear that it was compulsory for us to teach you since the same format applies to faxes and emails. Secondly, I think it's a great way to keep your little brain occupied. And finally, it's a wonderful way to get to know people. I hope some of you keep the letters from your pen pals and can look back on them when you're older."
Adonis seemed content with this response and bent over his desk once again to keep writing. Mrs. Smith sighed with relief. She wasn't sure if this answer would have sufficed. She wasn't in the mood to have another back and forth with him.
"Make sure you seal your envelope properly before you put it in the bin. We don't want the other school to think that we're messy now do we?" Mrs. Smith said in her sing song voice.
Circe viewed this assignment with just as much ridicule as Adonis. She just didn't say it out loud. Mrs. Smith already went through hell with him and she didn't want her to think that it was a trait amongst twins to be so loud and rambunctious. She finished writing her letter, put it in her envelope and licked the paper to activate the glue seal. She got up and made her way to the front where she dropped her letter in the bin. It was already half full. In all honesty, she didn't expect a reply back. She'd made the letter short and straight forward because of this. It just had a greeting, a few details about herself and her home address so that the 'lucky' recipient could reply if they wanted to.
Imagine her surprise when a week later a letter arrived? The tone of the 3 page document was livelier than hers and it carried way more insight into the person's life. Suddenly, Circe was excited and couldn't wait to write back. She looked forward to opening the mailbox and finding a letter stuffed with adventures and stories. Adonis didn't understand the sudden obsession his twin sister showed but he kept that thought to himself. Because he knew that to her, this girl meant the world to her even if they'd never met.'
Akira.
The name still makes smile. Even after all these years. We sent each other letters for around 3 years before she suddenly stopped. I sent a couple of letters after that to make sure she was ok but after no responses for over a month, I reluctantly stopped bothering. Somewhere in between all that I forgot about the letters and about her existence completely. Until my moving out day that is.
Now I'm sitting here, sifting through all these letters and laughing again because she was just that funny. I never really took note of this back then but her handwriting is beautiful. I remember sitting hours writing hefty letters of my extremely uneventful week but she made me s excited to do so because she did the same. She painted a picture of her life that filled my head. Her classmates, her friends, her family, her interest and her hobbies. It became even easier to imagine when she sent me a few pictures of her I just hopped my letters did her the same justice.
I finished reading the last letter she sent me and placed it carefully back in the box. Something told me I'd be revisiting it every now and then and I wanted to make sure everything was in order. I pushed the box side and flopped on to the bean bag next to the couch. I'd already made the decision to look for her but it was proving to be harder than I thought.
After cleaning up my apartment, showering and having breakfast I got down to it. I looked through the letters and looked up the address. It turns out the area where she lived and several other buildings around there got demolished and turned into the highway. This happened around the time the letters stopped coming. At first I thought this explained why I hadn't heard from her. But my address had never changed and she could have just told me they moved somewhere else.
After that, I decided to look for her mom in the phonebook or rather the website where the official phonebook was posted. Her dad had passed away when she was young so I couldn't look for him. I did find her mom but when I called, the number was no longer in service.
Now I'm stuck in a rut. While I did know a lot about her personally, we were still kids. Any information that would have led me to her didn't exist because, like everyone else my age at the time, we just used her parents. I sighed and sunk further into the bean bag.
Why can't I let this go? Its not like anything good will ever come from this. Maybe just the chance to meet a long time but after that what else?
Just as I was about to call it a day, another idea popped into my head. How wonderful. I jumped off the couch and made my way back to my laptop on the dining room table. I typed in the name of the building that she used to live and after some quick reading, I found the details of its owner. It was really sad how he had to give up the building. His wife had sold the deed to the land to the government, effectively making it impossible to stop the demolition of homes.
I picked up my phone and had just typed in the numbers to dial when there was a knock on my door. I opened the door to find Haru and Megumi standing at my door.
"I need your help." He said.
"What's going on?" I asked. He had a look of panic on his face and that made me panic even more.
"My boss is coming over for dinner in 20 minutes and I need you to take care of her for me. Please? I'll pick you up from work for all of next week." He pleaded.
"I would have taken her anyways. But you have yourself a deal." I grinned. I opened the door wider to let the little munchkin in.
"Thank you so much." He grinned and quickly walked back to his place.
I turned around to find Megumi examining the outside of the box. I quickly make my way toward her and gently pry it out of her hands.
"What's that?" she asks. Her big eyes were looking at me, imploring me to tell her everything about the box and its contents. And that's exactly what I did.
"It's a bunch of letters from when I was a kid. I had a pen pal for about 3 years and every time she sent me a letter I put it in there." I said.
"Where are they now? Don't you talk to them anymore?" she asked. God, at this rate she'll be an amazing journalist.
"I don't know where she is. She stopped talking to me all of a sudden. I tried to reach out to her but her address changed I think. I'm actually looking for her right now." I grinned.
"CAN I HELP?!" She yelled.
I picked her up and walked to the kitchen. She giggled wildly.
"You can help me by telling me what you like for dinner and what movie you wanna watch. The letters are personal and I don't want you getting roped up in this mess of an investigation." I grinned.
"Awwwww. No fair." She pouted.
"It be like that sometimes." I grinned.
She didn't bring it up again after that and we spent the rest of the night watching movies and telling each other stories; hers from school and mine from home and work. Eventually she fell asleep on the couch and I could clean up.
Haru came to pick her up a couple of minutes and as he carried her sleepy form home she looked up at me and said "I hope you find who you're looking for."
I'm touched. She believes in me. That makes one of us.