Hello.

I dreamt of you last night; a warm summer evening in my dream, you sat on my shoulders while we talked of your plans for the city. We walked on the old brick street; reaching the graveyard between our parent's homes (a park, to us), you told me how you wouldn't rest until everyone could love. We laughed with the joy of it, friends under the soft canopy of night, under the warm glow of the streetlights.

It's the first time I've thought of you since the reunion, that odd, uncomfortable mingling of people half-remembering how they fit together - and knowing that didn't apply anymore. I'd hoped to see you then - I'd even driven by your old house in the car I'd rented.

More than a year has passed, and suddenly I see you in a dream.

That's been the pattern over the last decade - a lapse, then a sudden wondering, a remembering, and slowly the humdrum rumble of everyday life slowly shoves such thoughts aside.

Mornings are caught in the sieve of my memory - mornings when we walked together to school, where we talked, shared, and laughed. Memories of you being a sorely-needed friend.

It might not seem like much - you may not even remember those mornings. It seems such a simple thing, being there and just accepting another's presence as valid, of being a friend, but its value cannot be underestimated. It might just be one of the most important things there is - especially to a young boy with the social skills of a somewhat evolved rutabega.

Thank you. I never said it then, nor have I said it in the years since. I don't want this chance to slip by again, to let my memory of you get buried in the workaday busyness of kids, fiancees, and simply doing my job. So now I tell you again:

Thank you.

I remember the last day of our shared high school lives, where we talked before parting. You invited me along, but I had a different way to go.

I haven't seen you since then, really, and now I can't find you.

I wonder what has happened to you, what you have caused to have happen. I wonder if you know how much I appreciated your kindness - or if you'll ever see this.

Peace be with you, Heather, and may things go for you exactly as you need them to.