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

Letter #2

Dear Samuel Owens,

I don't know why I'm writing this.

When I found your letter, I thought it was some elaborate prank set up by some of the boys in the village. It's the sort of thing they'd do. Yet your writing interested me since I know they don't have the brains to write something like that. I'm more than certain one can only just manage to write his own name.

Your letter intrigued me, not just because I found it resting on the bottom of the stream, but because I understood so much of it. I've spent my life being the butt of the joke to almost everyone because I'm not exactly the farming type. They say I'm not strong enough, distracted too easily, and lazy. Maybe they're right, but I never felt like I had any friends.

Everyone just thinks I'm odd. I'm more than certain my papa would swap me for someone else if he could. He already hires outside help for the harvest, since he knows I'm not going to be much help. Why he bothers trying to push me, I don't know. Just today he pulled me away from an afternoon fishing just to watch me struggle with my chores.

I wouldn't mind someone who looks at the world in the same way I do.

It's the letters that concern me the most. I can write well enough, but I'm hardly eloquent. Perhaps we can meet in person. It would squash my fears of this all being a practical joke, anyway. We could meet at the pond. Not many people go there, not as far as I know anyway, and it would be better than sitting around waiting for a letter in a stream.

I'm sorry if this letter isn't what you expected. I said I wasn't very good with words. You don't have to reply if you think I'm not the sort of person you want to be friends with.

Yours,

Eli Webster.

~~~

First Published - March 23rd, 2024