Child of Fire

Love Letters

With each passing day, Saint finds himself with less excuses. He barely believes in them anymore.

Sometimes, Zee shows up at his house with dinner. Even though he invites Earth and Poon to be some sort of buffer, they always find a way to get out of the invite leaving Saint alone with Zee.

Sometimes, they watch movies or concerts on Saint's laptop after their dinner. Movies are fun because even though he could have picked those with descriptive video he would ask Zee to describe it for him. Zee would tease him sometimes and give him exaggerated descriptions. Saint is learning to tell how Zee sounds when he is lying and when he is telling the truth. His descriptions would often lead them into an off-tangent discussion about their beliefs, principles and preferences. He gets to learn more about Zee than he ever had before.

Is it possible to fall in love with the same person twice? Because that's what Saint is feeling. And keeping his distance is hurting him but Zee is slowly and gently closing the gap between them. Saint can't summon the energy to step back.

One night after dinner and after Zee had already left, Saint was turning off the lights and making sure everything was locked up when his hand brushed against paper taped over the front doorknob. Saint carefully peeled it off and found that it was an envelope. He didn't open it until he was already sitting in his bed.

He tamped down the anticipation that threatened to overflow as he unfolded the paper inside the envelope. He caught his breath as he felt the raised points across the paper.

Dear Saint,

It's me, Zee. Are you surprised?

Writing in Braille is hard but you probably knew that the first time you started learning. But I wanted to try anyway so I bought a kit containing an alphabet reference sheet and a slate and stylus. I hope I'm doing this right. You can read this, right? This is my 6th draft already. I kept messing up the previous ones. I'm getting the hang of it, I think. It only takes me 3 hours now to write one page of draft. Hehehe... you still can read this, right?

In this digital age, handwritten letters have become less popular. But I think this is the best way for me to tell you how I feel. If I write you an email or if I send you an instant message, I feel you might feel pressured to respond. I did promise you that I won't push you to do something you don't want. And I want to keep that promise. So with this letter, if you don't like what it says, you can just crumple it into a ball and throw it in the trash can. After all, to everyone else, this is just a blank piece of paper full of raised dots.

But before you throw this letter away, I just wanted wanted you to know that you drive me crazy... in the best way possible. When I'm with you, I feel like the sun shines a little brighter, the food tastes a little more delicious, and life is a little more meaningful.

Perhaps this is not something that you want to hear but I think you already know. So forgive me in advance but I love you, Saint.

Yours,
Zee 

Saint pulled his knees towards him as he continued staring at the letter in his hands. He hunched over, resting his head on his raised knees. His shoulders began to shake and laughter spilled from his lips. He laughed until his stomach ached and tears leaked out of his eyes. He hasn't used a slate and stylus in years! If he ever needed to print something, he just uses his Braille printer. He imagined Zee painstakingly using the slate and stylus and it set off another round of laughter. He appreciates his efforts, of course, but the picture in his head was just too funny for him.

  

A month after his father's death, Zee found that he had personal loans left unpaid and now the creditors were knocking on their doors demanding payment. It took awhile to get them sorted out but after all the debts were settled, there was little money left from his father's accounts. Zee had his own savings, so does Cass. But his mother, who was totally dependent on his dad, had next to nothing in terms of cash. What she has are real properties that his father bought over the years. They are not easy to liquidate since most of them are raw lands. As for the shares in the WP Construction Company, those shares cannot be sold without affecting Zee's position in the board.