The Envelope

"Its Here!" the little boy shouted as he watched the white vehicle pull away from the mailbox. The little child opened the screen door as a blast of moist, humid air swept across his body and into the home. "You watch those cars now, Skip." his mother shouted from the kitchen. Sprinting to the mailbox,

the boy threw down the mailbox door and reached his little arm inside and grabbed a handful of envelopes. He shuffled through an odd number of bills other letters until his eyes came across the one blue envelope. He took the letter and placed it into his back pocket and now ran back inside, the screen door and placing the other mail on the kitchen counter. Skip ran up the stairs and placed the envelope on his desk. Immediately, Skip returned downstairs, though somehow he felt different, so warm inside.

Weeks passed, and finally as Skip returned to school from summer break, his mother went into his room to straighten and tidy up. To her suprise she the slightly faded envelope unopened, still resting propped up against a lamp on her sons desk.

The years passed by, and Skip grew older and older. Now moving out to college, Skip began to box up all his belongings to take along with him. While packing up his things he found once again that one blue envelope, it had fallen behind his desk and now was covered in dust. He exhaled a full breath which seemed to brush off most of the dust that was covering it, and placed it into a moving box.

Again years passed, and Skip graduated from college with his degree. Skip packed up his things once again, and left his dorm, moving into his first. Eventually Skip unpacked and discovered that same envelope, yet still he placed it into a box headed for the attic.

"Dotty, please, if there is one thing I need before I go to feel that my life was complete, I'd like you to bring me the envelope in the top drawer of my ." Dotty returned no more than an hour later with the 80 year old envelope, still its contents a mystery. "Let me tell you a story hun, that for 60 years I kept a secret from you. Inside this envelope, is a letter from my father. It came to me on my 9th birthday. I kept the envelope sealed, still waiting for my father to return from his trip to the west. Days passed, and they turned to weeks and then months. No word from my father. I kept the letter sealed, as a symbol and a sign to myself that he loved me and I always thought he would come back to me, but I guess I was wrong."

"He's gone, ma'am. I'm sorry." the nurse told the heart-broke woman. Dotty, wiping the tears from her eyes, asked for the envelope that Skip was holding onto when he passed on. She carefully opened it, and revealed a letter hidden inside. The letter explained that Skip's father has passed away days before Skips 9th birthday. It also reported that his fathers last known conversation with his cell mate was about how proud he was of his son, and he couldn't wait to get out and hug him again. Skip found out later that his father died, but it wasn't until he had gotten his hopes up of seeing his father return that his mother explained he wasn't coming home.