little bird | a.p

FOURTEEN

I had been spending time with my new friend Benita frequently. It felt nice to hang out with a girl my age. We got along great and were basically sisters at this point. I sat in the coffee shop with her as she finished out her break with me. Sound came from the small T.V in the corner of the room. Rock music started to play.

"Get ready, Brazil!" The man on the T.V yelled. "Rio's Alex Pereira is coming home!"

My head shot up to look at the screen Benita put her hand on my arm.

"Saturday, June 29th at the Rio De Janero Ampetheatre, UFC is taking over Brazil! Alex Pereira takes on Israel Adesanya. Preliminary cards starts at five, Main card at ten. Tickets available now!" The screen faded to black.

I looked at Benita. "What are you going to do?"

I thought for a moment. We were so much older now. I know Alex has turned thirty-one recently. Myself just twenty-nine. It's been years and he hasn't reached out to us. Would he care if I showed up? Clarity came over me. Who am I kidding? Of course he would care.

"I'm going." I said. "Would you want to go?"

She nodded her head and smiled.

"We'll get three. Camilla would want to be there for her son."

With that, we headed to the post office to buy our tickets. Since we didn't have access to internet, we were able to purchase things through catalogs at the post office. We walked into the small building and the worker greeted us. I asked her for three tickets to the event. She came back with a box full of papers.

"What's this?" I asked her and grabbed it from her.

"We've been holding everyone's mail until we knew they, uhm.. survived." She said sadly.

"Well, thank you." I said and we walked back to the coffee shop. We sat down in front of the box and began going through the papers. My fingers ran over the small ticket, my thumb brushing over Alex's name in capital letters.

"Maria," Benita said. "Look!" She held up a piece of paper.

I grabbed it from her and read the envelope.

"UFC headquarters..." I read out loud. I began to read the letter addressed to me. It was saying about how they were trying to contact me.

Benita put another envelope in front of me, covering the one I was reading. The mailing address said Alex's name.

I immediately ripped it open and started reading.

'My, Maria

I've heard about what happened. Are you safe? How bad is it? They're saying that a lot of people are dead. They won't let me come home to you guys. They're saying it's dangerous...'

Benita dropped a stack of letters all from Alex in front of me. I ripped them open one by one.

'Maria, it's been weeks since I've sent my last letter. I'm starting to think the worst...'

'My love, you haven't responded in a month. I have to stay here and train for my next fight..'

'Happy twenty-eight birthday, my beautiful Maria. I wish I could see you now. I am hopeful that you are okay...'

"Oh my.." I covered my mouth. My eyes began to swell with tears. He hasn't given up.

"Maria.." Benita breathed.

I looked up to her with a smile, tears ran down my face. "I knew it was a good idea to get these." My fingers running over his name again. It would only be a few short months.