A Second Chance

16

Listen to the song above before reading

Cork

"Harry, you got a letter!" Tom shouts when he enters their flat after his morning classes.
"A letter from Scotland!" Harry opens the door and steps out of his room unsure what to think. When became Liam that nostalgic to write real letters? Like they aren't texting each other every other day.
What does that mean? The return adress is University of St.Andrews, Prof Maria House. The name sounds kind of familiar, although he can't be sure he has heard that name before.

Does anything happened to Liam,or Niall ? Harry reaches out to take the letter with trembling fingers.

Maura has kept him informed and her last message was that after one week everyone was content with Niall's progress. It can't be about Niall, right ?
Harry opens the envelope with cold fingers and an increasing heart rate.

Inside he finds a sheet of paper and someone has written on it in a nead handwriting.
When Harry starts reading surprise and excitement flash his face.

Dear Harry,
in case you are wondering . This letter, it's actually a part of my therapy.
Dr. House wants me to write letters about all the things I'm not able to speak about. I'd like to send the letters to you. Would that be okay for you?

Harry's left hand that holds the letter droops while his gaze flickers to Tom.

" It's from Niall. Niall wrote a letter ...Tom, he chose me to be a part of ....of his therapy ." Harry explains his voice obviously laced with excitment.

And he continues reading.

I have no clue how that will work for me.
But I will try. I promised mum and dad that I would.
My mum told me that your friend helped getting me in this therapy programme here in St.Andrews. I'm not in that state to really appreciate your effort right now. Yet I know I should thank you and your friend .
Please send your answer to the attached adress. All patients here are not allowed to have their phones. It's apparantly part of the therapy.

Niall

Before Harry is aware of his acting he finds himself rushing into his room and rummaging around in his boxes for notepaper. He can't exactly remember the last time he used it.
His grandma gave it to him three and a half years ago when he moved to Cork to begin his studies. She explained that she would love getting letters.
So it came that Harry sent her a letter once in a while and his sister sometimes.

Although they kept in touch sending short WhatsApp messages Gemma loved waiting for the postman to drop a letter in the letter box .

It was shortly before his grandma's sudden death that he wrote a letter the last time. Most probably.

That was also the time when he was struggling with his feelings, his sexuality and Harry tries to memorise why he stopped posting letters for Gemma but he can't. Like his memory was erased. A blank space in his mind now.

Harry takes the notepaper out of the box and lays it on his desks and sits down on his chair. He starts writing, struggling with a decent beginning.

Dear Niall,

or better

Hi Niall,

or just Nial

Hello Niall could be more appropriate

what about Hey mate ??

Harry gets frustrated after the fifth attempt.
Has it ever been that complicated to send a message ? For sure not, but honestly he's never been in a similar situation before. Fearing that
just two words could lead to a wrong impression , could spoil everything. When was the last time he has been so insecure and full of doubts. Now that he has the chance to get in touch again he doesn't want to risk anything . It took two accidents and a death to see clear, to rediscover bottled up feelings and he doesn't want to scare Niall off . Not by any means.

HeyNiall,

I'm glad that your physician found an appropriate therapy for you. I'd like to help you with this. Feel free to write as often as you want to.
I'm happy to hear from you.
How is the food in Scotland? Porridge for breakfast and haggis in the evening or worse ?? Could send you some Twirls or Wispa to add variety
to the menu.

I'm looking forward to your next letter.

Take care,

Harry

Harry steps out of the house and heads towards the small post office a content little smile on his face. Once in a while he skips like a little child on the way to the ice cream parlour.
He got the unique opportunity to stay in touch with Niall.
In fact during the first weeks while every single call and visit is prohibited Harry is given a chance. and he will take it.

It's too early, most likely baseless but Harry feels like he's the lucky one. Like he's standing under a lucky star. Or an answered prayer. Harry personally goes with the second option.

And he can't do anything about it when that old legendary Beatles song All My Loving comes into his mind and stays there for hours.

Author's note

Just a short happy chapter without any drama. Before things will go downhill again for Louis.

Dedication goes to Tamara who reassured me to update just a short happy chapter.
I want to thank all of my lovely readers for sticking with me and my story.

Questions

Thoughts on Niall's special therapy?

Any ideas why Niall wanted to send the letters to Harry ?

Can anybody guess what's wrong with Louis?