Letters For The Forgotten, Chapter 1

𝑳𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏

Hello mom,

I know it’s been a while since I wrote to you last. How are things in England? Are you and dad happy there? I really hope you are.

I want you to know that I am not mad at you for running away. And I want dad to know too. But I do miss you terribly. I think about you every day. Even now, after eight years. I’m sure you had your reasons though.

 I look forward to the day we meet again. Grandma tells me that you promised in your letter that you would come back to visit me when I was older. I am older now. When will you come back? 

things are good here in Austria, There’s a lot of tourists though, which can get somewhat irritating. But they’re entertaining to watch at the same time.

I am starting to worry about grandma. She has been acting sort of weird the past few weeks. Sometimes she seems like she’s miserable, and her eyes look like all life has been sucked out of them, but then she goes back to normal like it never happened. 

She has also been getting angry, more than she used to. She’s just not acting like herself.

 I know she’s getting old. Too old to take care of us?

I love you most and I miss you. 

// Robin ♡

I put the pen down and stare at the paper. Words. Words everywhere. My mind won't form any coherent sentences except for one. I miss them. 

I feel somewhat dizzy rising from the dark wooden chair with spiraling leaf patterns along its back. I fall down to my knees and reach under my bed. I get a grip around a box and pull it out into the light of my room. I take off the lid with a sigh and bring it over to my desk. The box is green with a flower print on it. A memory flashed before my eyes; it’s the box before me, resting on a shelf in my old bedroom, in my old house. Inside of it I now keep hundreds of papers. Words. Each and every one of them is packed with words. I miss you, is written somewhere on every single one. I don’t even enjoy writing. But still, I write. And I believe I’ve become somewhat good at it.

 I precisely fold the letter and place it on top of the last one. 

The door makes a desperate whining noise as I step out of my room and out into the hallway where it smells appetizingly of blueberry, Willow is laughing in the kitchen. 

“Hah! I got you Granny!” She yells and giggles. I smile and hurry into the kitchen. The big pot is bubbling on the stove and grandma has a purple stain on her nose. I take a few quick steps forward to get closer to the pot. Blueberry jam. I recognise the mixture immediately. 

“We’re making blueberry jam!” Willow exclaims and looks up at me. I’ve never known anybody who smiles with their entire face, except for Willow. Her eyes are always glimmering with excitement.

“Would you like to join, dear?” grandma asks me with her kind, raspy voice while wetting a towel to clean the blue spot on her face.

“Oh, I would, but I really wanted to go and check up on Orange’s pups before they go to sleep” Orange is a female fox I often see when I’m venturing in the woods. Lots of animals live in that forest as barely anyone ever goes out there. And when I do, they barely notice me. It was Willow who named her Orange after I told her about it a few months ago. 

“I wanna come! Can I go? Can I go granny?” Willow jumps up and down on the kitchen floor. 

“Not today, It’ll be dark soon. And you will be home soon Robin okay? I want you here by 7” grandma said firmly as she helped carry Willow up on the counter so she could see the jam cooking, I started walking towards the shoerack.

“Got it!” I yelled from the hall while tying my shoes. 

Outside the sun was on its way down. Bright oranges and pinks peeked out from behind the clouds above.

this has to be the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen

I thought as I walked while staring at the sky without looking down once. I knew the path so well that I didn’t trip a single time. I knew which cobblestones peeked out of the ground a bit more than the others, where there were signs, and where there were fences. When I made it to the field I finally managed to tear my eyes from the sky. In between the village and the forest is a big field with vibrant green grass and occasional flowers. I stood there for a bit. Watching the woods in the distance and the wind whirling through the grass. 

I took a deep breath, and allowed the fresh air to fill me up with energy, then I ran.

I run pretty fast. Faster than anyone I know, although I probably don’t know enough people to be sure. The wind blasted in my face and through my short brown hair. Fresh air. Fresh air is one of my favourite smells in the entire world. 

I slowed down when the trees rose above my head and I started to hear birds chirping. They were probably shushing each other so that they would be able to fall asleep. Even though I wore shoes, I could still kind of feel the moss under them through their thin soles. 

When the trees were so tightly placed together that I couldn’t see the orange and pink sky anymore, I took off my shoes so that I wouldn't make as much sound. And when I’d walked so deep into the forest that I could see the pond, I climbed halfway up a tree and made myself comfortable on a thick branch, then I focused on the ground below me. Checking every last centimeter for movement. 

I saw nothing for a while. But then. A paw in the corner of my eye. I quickly turned my head in its direction. And there she was. Orange with her pups. I caugh myself smiling when two of the pups started to playfully fight each other. Orange’s family only pass by the area and disappear behind a hill only a few minutes after arriving. So I returned home.