"Our Death Letters" David

Alfaro

“If you are reading this, then I guess I died ” Anne wrote down the sentence but quickly erased it, embarrassed at the delivery of the words she had just written down. Why did she let Noah convince her to do this? The chances were low that she would just up and die one day, but she understood the reasons that Noah gave her for writing a death letter

Noah and Anne had just gotten out of classes, and as they usually did they walked to the shabby park right next to their high school just to sit and talk. Anne appreciated spending time with Noah because she had no one else to talk to, while Noah accepted his role as her best friend. But on that day Noah was not swinging like a wrecking ball on those poor swings like he normally would Instead, he was kicking the gravel while gripping the rusty chains of the swings weakly, keeping quiet when Anne would try to reignite a conversation He sighed and looked up at Anne

“What if one of us dies, what then?” Noah asked suddenly, a question that caused Anne to instantly press her foot against the floor to stop her carefree swinging

“What? What’s with the morbid question?” Anne exclaimed, “We are both completely fine why are you even worrying about that?” The question shocked her; why was Noah just talking about death the second their conversation died down? What was wrong?

“Well I have been thinking, we can’t control anything in life, so what if something happens and I didn’t get to tell you everything I felt?” By the end of his sentence, he was quiet and deep in thought which confused Anne further. After another silence between the two arose, Noah finally continued, adding “We should write a note in case one of us dies. We can write some secrets that we can tell each other in case that day comes a bit too early” After finishing his proposal Noah finally took his eyes off the pebbles underneath the swing set and looked toward Anne. Anne examined the tired look on Noah’s face, realizing that there was no humor behind his eyes or sarcasm in his words

“If you are that worried I guess I can write some stuff down. But how would we even get the letter to each other if we are already in the afterlife? Thought that far in? And what kind of secrets are you keeping from me!” Anne teased, trying to get a reaction out of the mopey Noah.

“Hey! Just put my name on it and maybe someone will find it and send it to me, I don’t know!” Noah argued, “And with the way you’re acting I would have to come back from the dead to steal my secrets from your grubby little hands if you aren’t going to appreciate them ” Noah secretly felt relieved It is all going to work out.