Our Sundays

Enjoy!!

Dear Lilac,

I was a boring girl with a boring life who did boring things and played boring games and I was covered in a boring mop of unruly brown curls with boring pale olive skin and boring, basic pink lips. I was just boring. I didn’t ever wear colours or fancy shoes. I never wore any makeup besides mascara. I didn’t have friends to gossip with, or any sort of life at all. I was a boring, lonely loser and for a while I thought that was all I was going to be. I truly believed I’d be nothing but a lady with her dog and a cigarette and I was perfectly okay with it.

Until one warm spring day, at the park with my chocolate lab Jo. Everything was normal and okay, music was blasting through my little black headphones, Jo had already done his business, and trees blew gaily in the wind. The world around me was calm and happy and so was I and maybe if it had been raining on that perfect April day or if I had left my headphones at home everything would be different. Maybe I wouldn’t be here right now writing this for you. Maybe none of this would matter if you hadn’t gone to the park, or if your dad declined the work offer. Both of our lives would’ve been completely different if even one thing was wrong and so I thank the non-existent gods that they weren’t.

You approached me like we were children who’d known each other since birth. I’d never seen anyone like that, so kind and loving and innocent. I could never even dream of somebody as amazing as you. From the way your lilac hair sparkles in the sun to the way your deep blue eyes drowned me, devouring me like an endless ocean.

“Hey whatcha listening to bud?” you said with a slight smirk on your face

“Oh nothing just umm, The Neighbourhood.” I responded nervously “their album just came out a couple days ago so you know...”

“That’s pretty rad.” You responded

Now I had no clue who you were but my god your use of the word rad made me want a friend. It seemed like no one used words like that anymore and finding someone who did was like finding a needle in a haystack. Rad was the coolest word I’d ever heard and not hearing in more often made me lose faith in everyone. I mean who wouldn’t want a word like that? It’s perfect. And from that moment on I knew I had to keep you. You were going to be my best and only friend and I’d have you forever.

I really wanted to keep you forever.

So we walked and talked about everything and nothing and all the things i’d kept bottled up, all of my opinions on the world were shared for the first time ever and I realised what it was to have a friend. It wasn’t just someone to talk to and spend time and money on, it was someone to laugh with and care about and understand you and even though i’d only known you for an hour and 45 minutes, i’d felt like it had been years.

We had managed to walk just out of town right near my favourite diner, Sarah’s Tree house, I only liked it because of the owners, the food was great and all but so was any other place around home. This one was worth the mile long walk away. The owners, Joe and Joanne Smith had a little girl named Sarah who’d always wanted a treehouse but since they’d lived in a small apartment, there was never any space for one and when Sarah was diagnosed with brain cancer, Joe and Joanne had made it a huge deal to get their baby the treehouse she wanted. So they bought a small lot and built her a huge tree house in just a few months. They’d worked on it everyday from the moment the sun came up ‘till long after it came down and soon it was up. They dedicated the space below to making a small kitchen where they would only make Sarah’s favourite dishes just the way she liked. Six months after the tree house was up and running for Sarah, she passed and her parents turned the tree house and the personal restaurant into a diner giving 25% of the money made there to cancer research organizations. I’d loved them so much I bought a pup and named it after them to remember them and their story.