Message in a Bottle [LGBTQ+] [ONC 2024]

Letter #1

Dear future friend,

I am writing this in the hopes of finding someone as like minded as me. Someone who notices things others might ignore; an ordinary bottle floating in a stream, or a lone sparrow sitting on a tree branch. Someone who notices the beauty on a quiet day in a field or who enjoys the silence and the presence of another person rather than filling the silence with meaningless chatter.

Perhaps you and I can be friends.

I have never been one to enjoy face-to-face conversations and often find myself with little to say. The written word, however, holds far more power than one might expect. It can allow someone to bear their soul in private, it can heal a broken heart in a final goodbye hastily scrawled on a scrap piece of paper, and it can be the thing that brings two unlikely souls together.

Forgive me if I sound a little pretentious, I have often been told my writing is beyond my sixteen-years, yet this is the only way I can truly express myself.

If you have stumbled upon this bottle, and likewise the message within, I can only hope you are like me. I can only hope that you have the same curiosity that I do, the same interest in the mundane that most would ignore. Some may laugh, but I think it is a speciality to notice those that others feel are beneath them.

It opens a world of possibilities.

One of those possibilities, I hope, will be the forming of a fresh new friendship. It is my wish to find someone who understands me, who does not think my behaviour to be strange or unusual as most do. A wish that I could find a friend to lighten the darkness, to bring warmth to the cold, even if it is through a normal sheet of paper. It is as my mother says:

A desperate wish, made from the heart, is always answered. Sooner or later.

I hope that you, reader of these words, will answer this wish. All you need to do is write your reply to this letter and place it in the bottle. Leave it by the stream for I shall find it eventually and perhaps you and I can begin this friendship through words.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours,

Samuel Owens

~~~

First Published - February 29th, 2024