Summer Letters to Sally

Letter Six

Sally,

You sent a fruit basket to Liam and you asked for his mailing address I thought I was your friend not Liam, I'm not mad though I suppose you're enough to share.

The town has been a buzz with our new discoveries, in just one week we've had twelve funerals, seven weddings and two extremely long church ceremonies.

Everyday we wake up to new gifts from the neighbours, thanking us for bringing peace and consolation to the town and the families of all the men who lost their lives at the Scarlett Plantation House. The wife of the eleventh man came by our street the other night, she thanked us for saving her husband's life; she gave us a silver carnation flower coin each.

She said the man requested to see us and so we went, we found out that his name is Otis and that he lives two streets over from our homes. When we went to see Ottis he called us Marcel; Liam told him our names and he repeated himself. He said "No, collectively you are Marcel" it made no sense so we asked him to expound and he said "Marcel means little warrior and you are all little warriors".

It still made no sense, the only thing we did was enter a property we had no business being on, I explained this to Otis and he said "a war is more than physical and a warrior is the embodiment of bravery. You lot were warned that a dragon lived upon that hill but it did not stop you from mounting said hill. You climbed and you made it to the top, when you got there the dragon showed you its teeth; but that did not stop either of you, in fact, it added fire to your fuel. You wanted to see the dragon's cave and you did not let anything get in your way. You are children of fire and you are little warriors. You brought peace to your town in a way no one ever has before. So Marcel is what I shall call you until my days on this earth are no more."

Popular.

That's what we became, those who did not know us by name called us Marcel just as Otis had told them to. Even in summer school people seemed to always be calling my name.
You'd think I'd be enjoying this attention, you know judging from the fact that I had been complaining about a lack of attention from my family. But I'm not, in fact this has been one of the worst weeks of my life -for the most part- the attention is annoying; I feel like I cannot breathe without being approached by a community member.

I feel like I'm drowning and no one is paying attention to that; I can't close my eyes without seeing the lifeless eyes staring back at me. When I do fall asleep, the sound of the gun shot playing at the back of my head jolts me from my sleep. When it's still and I'm alone, the scent of the decaying bodies invade my nose. My appetite doesn't seem like it's in a hurry to return; when I look at my friends I can see the same cry behind their eyes but no one seems to understand what's going on but us, the town is a buzz and peace is roaming the streets.
There's so much peace no one seems to want to stop to inspect the misery that is sleeping between the folds of our four tiny brains; but I suppose war comes with sacrifice and the warriors pay the ultimate price no matter how little they are.

Marcel, the giver of peace; Marcel, the ones that live without peace.

There is no longer a firefly lane, they renamed it the Marcel lane. Construction at the old plantation is said to begin in the next two weeks. A library and community centre will take the place of the Scarlett Plantation House; the city has had it's eye on the property for ages, plans have been drawn and it's time for them to be executed. There has been two small changes to the plan. What would have been known as the Firefly Community Centre and Library will be known as the Joseph and Liam Community Centre and the Marcel Library.

Mandy and I got the river; they took us on a boat to explore every inch of the river before telling us that the once nameless river will forever be called the "Amanda and Theodore River".

While on the boat ride she turned to me and she said "I know I told you, you had to ask me to be your girlfriend before I could be your wife. But whatever love and marriage are, I want it all, with you and only you."

Those little words returned a fraction of the happiness and peace that were stolen from me at the Scarlett Plantation House.

Until next time Sals,
Theodore.

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Thank you for reading❤️