Priceless

7th Letter

I come back from the gym with a smile. I just saw that I passed my hardest exam so far and I should celebrate.

I used to celebrate these kinds of things with my sister, but now I've learned to go out fishing and read a good novel as a celebration. So I take a quick shower and go out for the mail before I look for my fishing materials. I separate them by interest, but I drop the rest of them when I see Dear's letter. I quickly open it and smile when I see her neat letters.

I'm a Fine Arts major. Thank you. I don't like my name, so I stick with Dear. I'm offended. Why does it matter?

A Fine Arts major... Hm. Interesting. That could mean anything. She could be a theater geek or a musician or even an artist. I hope she's not an artist. I wouldn't understand anything she'd show me.

But I furrow my brows at the part where she tells me she doesn't like her name. I wonder what her full name is. I bet it's not that bad.

But she's offended. By what? Oh! That I asked if she was a girl or a guy. I chuckle at this. She can fool around all she wants. I already know...

But I wonder why it did matter to me. I guess I was just trying to get an image of her. I know she has light brown eyes. She's shorter than me but of average height. She has a pretty smile.

I never thought this assignment would be so hard.

I slowly start towards my room so I could write back to her before I go fishing. But the sound of angry footsteps makes me look up to see my mother coming out of her room with a package. I watch in surprise as she abruptly throws the package against the wall and lets out a sob.

"Mom? Mom, what's wrong?!" I take her in my arms and feel her shivering body.

"It's a package. For your sister. She...she apparently made an order for each year with this drug!" She angrily kicks the box and it pops a bit open. I peek at it and gasp when I see small bags sticking out of Styrofoam.

"Who sent this?" I say as anger threatens to come at me.

"I don't know. It's an anonymous sender! But I'm sending this to the police right this instant!" She grabs the package and starts towards the door.

"Wait! Let me see." I take a hold of the package and turn it over. My heart falls when I see the small logo on the back. I knew I recognized it from somewhere...

It's from that time when I took the last picture with her. We were at the fair. I went only to take care of her and her friends, but she ended up having more fun with me than with her friends that had boyfriends. That night, she said something I never heard her say to me before.

We were sitting by the benches where we could see the rodeo show. Our legs were dangling over her friends distracted with their boyfriends. I looked over at her and playfully threw popcorn at her face. She flinched and got a piece of her cotton candy to shove it in my mouth. We shared a laugh and fell silent as we exchanged quiet smiles.

"You know," she said. "I never thought that I'd have more fun with my big brother. You're always so annoying."

"That's why I'm here."

She gently pushed my shoulder and chuckled. "Well. Yeah. Some of us have a bigger purpose here than others..." She then looked up at me with her shining eyes and said, "I'm glad to know why I'm here."

"Which is?" I playfully said.

But her usual tease faded away as she gave me a warm smile. "To be your sister."

And just like that, my heart melted and I put my arm around her shoulders to hold her closer. I should've seen it then. I only saw it come out of her pocket for a second, but I didn't pay attention to it.

A small side of a transparent bag with the same logo on the package I'm carrying now. My hands tremble as that memory runs through my head and I can't seem to find air. "Mom...."

"What is it?" My mother comes over to where I stand and looks for an answer to my pale face.

"She got it at the fair. That night when I went with her. She had it then..."

"What?!" Panic rises within her as my mother remembers the night before when she begged to go with her friends. Mom wasn't going to let her go. But she insisted so much that she ordered me to go. "But how?! Where?!"

"I-I don't know! I just saw this logo on a small bag she had, but I didn't pay attention to it then--"

"Why didn't you tell me?! David! Why didn't you ask her?!"

"I-I don't know, Mom! I-I thought it was just nothing!"

But my heart shatters as I watch my mother slowly fall to the ground. I watch her disintegrate in front of me as she forgets the world around her and brings out that sorrowful sob. Her despair makes me shiver as she sadly says among her cries, "Why did I let her go? Why didn't I stop her? How could I not see?"

The next thing I know, I'm panting in my room as I lean against my shut door. Tears angrily come out and I look for something to break. My eyes land on the picture that's still in the corner and I angrily punch the mirror by that corner. My fist leaves a shattered hole on it and I finally stay silent when I see the distorted image of my face. Tear stains stay on my cheeks and I suddenly look ugly in this mirror.

Pain stings my fist but I put it in my pocket. That's when I feel it. The letter.

I take it out and reread it. It threatens to distract my sorrow, but my heart gets angrier and I crumple it up. I go up to my desk and scribble on a piece of paper.

It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. This is useless and I hate this assignment. If you want, you can stop writing. I don't care. I wish you the best of luck with this assignment.

I angrily put a period at the end of it and fold it to put it in a new envelope. With tear stains and my mind just a buzzing of guilt, I enter my car and make my way to send in my last letter to this girl.

I pay for a stamp and drop it in the first box I see. I don't look back at it or rethink what I've written. It's enough to think of that last smile I saw on my sister's face and the chance I had to take away the cause of her death.