16 Letters

16 Letters : Letter #7

EIGHT

 Dear Dylan,

        Patience is indeed a virtue. I’ll always love the both of you.

Love, Katie.

                                                                      ***

   I held two suitcases in my hands, both should roughly weigh about 23 and a half tons. One of them a pink one with flower stickers all over it, belonged to me. The other, an old beat-up dark green luggage with deep scratches over the front, belonged to Haley. The reason why I was carrying two heavy suitcases was because I was about to take Haley on a week-long trip. It was Haley’s first time on an airplane and we were headed to Texas, to pay my parents a visit after being MIA for far too long. Haley and I had also intended to have a peaceful vacation while we were there.

    “What time’s our flight, Dada?” Haley asked me, tugging at her suitcase. Yes, the dark-green beat up one. “Dada, I want my suitcase back” Haley said, this time louder, seeing since I didn’t answer her first question. She tugged impatiently at the pink suitcase decorated with white daisy flowers. I must say, it did look pretty stunning. Dreamy white daisies over a pink backdrop was indeed beautiful. If I were a seven year old girl, I’d love it a lot. Well, too bad I wasn’t. “Dada!” Haley called me again but I neglect to answer her. I spent an entire evening painstakingly sticking on the white daisies on Haley’s suitcase and now she declares that she wants it? I wasn’t going to let her have it that easily. Of course, we’d have to settle for some sort of deal.

    “Alright. Alright, I’ll let you have it” I told Haley. “But only if you promise you won’t throw a tantrum up in the air” I continued, mock-sternly. The past few days leading up to this trip had been a complete misery, my worst nightmares come true. Haley had been such a rebel and wouldn’t agree with me on anything. I honestly didn’t know what to do. “I won’t. I promise” Haley told me, reaching for her suitcase. She’d wanted to carry it because she thought it made her look cool. Haley regretted it the instant she felt how insanely heavy they were. “Umm, I’ll let you carry them” Haley said to me, making it sound as if she was still in charge. I hid a small smile that came straight from my heart.

    After an hour of waiting, we were finally able to board the flight and as were walking towards our seat, Haley held my hand tighter than before. “Where’s our suitcase?” Haley asked for the billionth time. “Those kind people at the airport took it for us. We’ll see it again when we get to Texas” I replied. We sat down in our seats and fastened the safety belts. Seconds later, Haley turned to me and whispered, “Are we flying now?” to which I replied, “No. Not yet. We’re not”. And that question quickly became the question of the day. Each time, I told Haley to be patient and that we would be flying soon. I guess she finally got the message, after the nineteenth time she asked me the same question.

    The moment the plane took off, Haley became really quiet. The look of exhilaration on her face said enough for me. She grinned with joy and was really enjoying the moment. Up ten thousand feet in the air, I grew silent too because after so long, we were now finally closer to Katie than we ever were before, when we were down on the ground below. I looked out the windows and all I saw were fluffy white clouds and the bluest sky I’ve ever seen in my life. Katie’s somewhere out there. Probably not here, but I knew deep down that she was near. And that was all that mattered. I held Haley’s hand and all throughout the flight, I never let go of the love of my life.