A Letter (2013)

Dear You,

I have never written a letter to you. This is the first time. All those mails and SMS, phone calls and chats. I like when we Skype. I love to see you and hear your voice when you are so far away. It is the closest to you I can get these days. I am writing you a letter because I want you to have something to hold on to when things are not going too well. Like now.

But this letter is not to complain or argue, to tell you that things should be different. I am writing this letter to tell you a story. I call this story ‘Love Drunk’. It is about a man who – while others finish one pint after the other – he gets drunk on love. For him, love is the only thing that makes his life worth living. It is the only thing that makes him want to get up in the morning. When people offer him a glass of beer, he politely declines it with a smile saying ‘No need my dear, I have love’.

Interestingly, no one has ever seen him with a woman. Everyone at the pub banters with him and many times he has heard people say ‘Oh come on Charlie, just admit that she doesn’t exist’. He responds with a smile and doesn’t say a word. He knows, that’s all that matters.

One day he didn’t show up at the pub. His friends got worried and decided to pass by his house to check on him. He was in his garden, weeding. ‘Charlie, why didn’t you show up at the pub today?’ ‘She is coming home tomorrow!’ His friends got excited. Who was she? What would she look like? And where had she been?

The next day they all showed up at Charlie’s, with flowers and chocolates. A small woman was sitting on a bench in front of the house, next to Charlie. Holding hands and saying nothing. Upon seeing his friends Charlie got up: ‘How nice of you to come here. Meet Natalia. We met two years ago on a holiday in Georgia. We saved up money for two years and now she is finally here.’

His friends got excited: ‘You should have told us, we would have put some money together’ – ‘We would have helped you’ – ‘Is that why you never had a drink with us?’

‘Don’t worry about it. We are love drunk. Time means nothing to us.’

I love you.

Me.