A Second Chance

18

Listen to the song above

Dear Harry,
thank you for doing that for me. I appreciate your help, a lot.
One thing that I forgot to mention, all letters will also be read by my therapist Dr House, you know the one who initiated this special programme. I hope that doesn't make any difference
I wasn't sure how to begin this and I opted to just start with my very first memory of Gemma.

I was a tiny boy, a bit pudgy and chubby-faced with cheeks that used to get red like tomatoes whenever I had to face something unfamiliar.
Other children always found a reason to tease me for my appearance, my crooked teeth or the clothes my mum chose for me to wear.

My mum loved to tell me how things always turned out bad when she took me to the nearby playground. She repeated the story so often that at some point I wasn't sure any longer it's my memory of what happened or just what she kept narrating.

One sunny afternoon in August shortly before my first day at the kindergarten me ma took me to the playground again.
Only very few children where in the playground at that time. A good thing so far. I was building streets with my toy bucket digger in the sandpit when three older boys jumped into the sandpit and kicked my toys away.
They took my bucket digger with them. Too starteled and frightened I didn't defend myself.

I stood in the middle of that sandpit, silently crying when a little girl with piggy tails ran towards the taller boys and started yelling at them " You meanies, give it back to him or I tell mum and she knows your parents....give it back and apologise, chop chop ! "

Let me tell you, the boys didn't stand a chance against that lively girl. I guess it was the first time that someone smaller stood up against the playground bullies.They passed it back my bucket digger with mouth wide open and completely flabbergasted.

"I'm Gemma, will you be my friend?" she asked and gave the toy back to me.
"I, I'm Niall. Thank you .How did you do that? " I wanted to know, but she only shrugged and smiled.

"Mum, that's Gemma, she's my friend now. Can she come with us to the ice cream parlour? Please, please mum !! She helped me to get my bucket digger back," I pleaded when I ran back to my mum. She was sitting on a bench smiling at me while chatting with a woman with long dark and wavy hair.

Harry, this is how I met Gemma. It was the beginning of our friendship. She was my defender since that day.A feels month younger but taller than me. It's safe to say she was my first friend and best ....

Niall doesn't recognise the tears that are slowly leaving the corner of his eyes until the first salty drop stains the paper he's writing on.

Writing about Gemma is tugging at his heartstrings, stirring up his emotions.
And he feels something he hasn't felt since months. Different emotions flicker for seconds through his head. Could it be that his talking therapy, the medical treatment and appointments with Dr. Maria House are beginning to take small effects.

Niall's shell is getting small cracks in its surface. Cracks that are not visible yet but Niall feels that the pressure upon his chest is ceasing.
The tears that are still running down his cheeks aren't just only tears of a lost and numb. There are trace of all kind of emotions in them.

It's too early to say that he's finally embracing his fate but it feels better.
And deep inside he's waiting with anticipation for Harry's response, but he wouldn't admit that, not to himself and definitely not to Dr House.

...best friend ever since that day on the playground.
Harry, I guess it isn't that easy for you to read about your sister. I hope that I don't make everything worse for you. Be honest with me and tell me when it's all too much.