Dear lost girl,

   The sun was shining brighter than your smile, the blue sky twinkled more than your eyes, and the sand was even softer than your skin. That’s right, you were quite ordinary, which led me to believe made you special. Of course your hair dangled past your shoulders, and your nails where always beautifully polished a dark red color like on a porcelain doll, but you where sad, too sad too show it.  Too sad to sing to the wind as it howled in its own pain. And I, I was too alone to let you walk away. Too alone to remind you of my own sorrows. So we sat, both involved in ourselves. I got up because I couldn’t take it but you let it drown you and I never saw you again. Never again did I see that grey smile or your sad now grey eyes that were once so bright you could light a room or even bigger, the world. Katy is what they called you. Carton is what they called me. Two normal names for two normal people. Do you remember dressing up in your mother’s pearls thinking it would magically make you as beautiful as she? You always were as beautiful but I guess the only thing you got from her that you could see was her sadness. And soon we wouldn’t see her anymore either.

    I remember how we met. Dressed in your bright red dress, your long dark hair wrapped in a bun, and your smile brighter than the sun. You knocked on my door and cried “Carton, oh Carton, my dear Carton, be my prince and we will run away together.” Through the window I saw your mother walking down your front steps, cigarette dangling from her ruby red lips that one day you would inherit. She was calling your name saying it was dinner time. You blew me a kiss through the open window, then I saw you race down the sidewalk all the way back to your big yellow house. We are grown now and I still wait for the day to run away with you.

    You were who everyone wanted to be. But Katy was the only character you couldn’t withstand. Walking along the beach with your hand in mine. You smelled of the fresh breeze and your laugh echoed off the sea waves. You were wearing your mother’s pearls and I couldn’t help but stare at you. I loved you. But you were always off with Charles or Jimmy and I was in the background. I was a lost boy following a lost girl who was too afraid to look behind and help someone weaker than she. Did you ever notice the way I used to stare into your deep blue eyes? Ever see my blush as you looked around the room sensing someone admiring you?

    “One, two, tree, think of a happy thought and never let it go and you will fly like me.” Jumps off the jungle gym and soars over the black top were Charles and Jimmy fight over a stick as we make our dreams come to true. No need for worries or stress when you’re six. No need for fear or sadness. And if we fall, then we brush the dirt off our overalls and climb back to the top. Remember Katy after seeing the elementary schools production of Peter Pan? Remember how we would always play and how you would always insist on being Peter? Well you were my happy thought. You always made me feel loved. But when the days of imagination came to a close and we grew into our future selves you told me you needed to get away. So you did, moved far away from me and all of our memories that I hold onto in case you ever return. Went to the big city of New York, and if I learned anything about you in the 16 years I’ve known you it’s that you are not a city girl. You love the soft cool feeling of dirt in your fingers, or watching seeds grow in your father’s garden but most of all you love the woods. “These trees, these trees, these Truffula trees. All my life I’ve been searching of trees such as these.” Remember you whispering these words into my ear in the woods right by our high school. When I told you I loved you, you laughed and said I was the same. Same as all the other hopeless boys who thought they were lucky enough to win the hand of this fair maiden. But unless I’m mistaken, I don’t remember them going to your mother’s funeral and holding you all day as you cried. Don’t remember them stopping whatever they had planned for the weekend to grab the bag you forgot and drive it 400 miles to get it to you on time. The only thing I remember them at were the parties of yours that I was never invited to. You are beautiful, funny, and smart. But did you ever love me the way I loved you? Did you know anything important about me? Or maybe you just never cared to. For the last time I love you, and I hope the big buildings of New York return your smile to its shinning self. I hope you get to run away with the prince of your dreams and I know you shall get the spotlight on that stage you always wanted. But despite how hard it is for me to do this, I’m letting you go, when all I ever wanted was to get close to you. I’m letting you go, so my dear lost girl you can find yourself.

    From: Thy fellow of no delicacy

    And her eyes were brighter than the stars and her smile bigger than the moon. Her freshly painted nails and her long dark brown hair wrapped into a bun. She was not ordinary, and though she grew to like the hustle and bustle of the city, she always loved the woods. Yes it’s true she loved the elementary school production of Peter Pan, and always loved the Lorax, loved singing in the rain, and loved toast with tea. But the most truth was that she loved Carton, more than any of it, more than all of it.

     Pinky promises where broken as new people entered the lives of these two individuals. Katy fell in love with someone who had feelings for another, and had to write a letter similar to Catron’s explaining her ability to let go. Carton got married to a beautiful woman named Lily who after only two years of marriage died in a car crash. Carton and Katy both shared the pain of losing someone beloved. They knew they couldn’t change the past, so they smiled at the world and searched for the good. Two people that suffered much smiled brighter than the sun could ever shine.