…DID COME TO AN END
A year later when we were in Grade three, our little romance was cut short. Esther’s parents got transferred to another town and therefore they had to relocate. It was on a Saturday morning and winter was starting to set in in the month of May. My best friend and I were playing video games at my house because that day most of the kids were not out to play. This was strange as the street would usually be packed on weekends at that time.
‘This must be some kind of bad omen. How come there is not even a single kid on the street today?' he asked and I nodded in agreement before adding on, ‘You read my mind buddy’.
We heard the roaring engine of a truck and, out of curiosity, went outside to see where it was going. As kids, we usually ran after trucks and held on to the back. And the moment it slowed down we would jump off and run away before the driver saw us. But this time it wasn’t a moving truck we could have fun with. It was labeled in big red letters: HOVER’S MOVERS and it was reversing into Esther’s house.
‘Esther’s family is moving!’ we uttered at the same time. We stood there watching as men loaded furniture into the big truck. Was this really happening or was I dreaming? I wondered. My worst fear was confirmed a while later when Esther came up to us. With a white dress and a matching ribbon and sandals, she looked so beautiful I could die. You’d be forgiven if you thought she was an angel lost on earth.
‘I’ll excuse myself for you two to talk,’ my friend politely said and he went back into the house. I looked at Esther, my eyes stinging with tears as she confirmed that they were going away.
‘So where are you moving to?’
‘Well, I heard my mum saying something about Gaborone,’ she answered. Tears were starting to well in her eyes as well. Even though I also felt like crying, I told her not to cry. She took out a small card from her dress pocket and gave it to me; the last card I would receive from my Esther, maybe in a long time.
‘I made this for you so that you can remember me when I’m gone…' she explained, ‘…and I made it much more perfectly than all the other cards I’ve given you because it shows just how much I’ll miss you and how very special you are to me.’
I managed to smile back and wiped a tear that had escaped from her brown eye. Once again it seemed like a scene from some romantic movie where a boy parts with a girl. But at that moment, it wasn’t a movie; it was happening to me and my lovely Esther. I put the card in my pocket and she placed my hand in hers.
‘I’m going to miss you, Brandon’
‘I’m going to miss you too, Esther,’ I confessed. She hugged me. After the hug she looked in the direction of her house and when she was sure nobody was looking, she kissed me; this time on the lips. The moment her soft lips touched mine, this good and new feeling literally split my heart into pieces and released forever in my heart, a feeling I will never forget. It lasted only a few seconds but the seconds felt like hours. After that we looked into each other’s eyes and smiled. Her mother called her from their house.
‘Yes mum, I’ll be right there,' she answered before saying, 'I have to go so... this is it!’
‘Yeah, I guess so.’
She came closer to me and whispered in to my ear as she would always do, ‘I just wish one day we’ll meet again and never part. Then we’ll get married and have lots of babies.’ Then she walked away. I smiled and looked at her as she walked away from my life. After a few seconds of admiring the girl I loved so dearly, I walked back to my house and joined my friend.
‘So, she’s gone?’
‘Yes, gone forever…’ I said. Pain gripped my heart and I started to cry. My friend tried to comfort me, ‘Don’t worry. You guys will meet again one day. You have not lost her.’
‘I have, it’s obvious. I will never see her again. I just wish I could go with her.’
‘It’s okay, Brandon, never say never,’ he continued, rubbing my back in the process.
He was right; I had not lost Esther but I couldn’t get myself to believe that. As a kid the world is big for you and Gaborone for me then was like Cape Town to Cairo. That was why I didn’t want to believe I had not lost my girl. I had once heard my teacher saying that “We part to meet and meet to part”. That was one thing that made me even sad. I had met Esther and we had now parted. But there was one thing I wasn’t realizing: we had parted to meet, right?
When the family finally left, I looked at the truck as it drove away, through my bedroom window. And there she was, waving sadly at me; the final wave at her ‘beloved boyfriend’. Kids as we were, the few months we had been together had been the most precious and I would miss our moments together. The shy moments we had together, all the cards and letters we had exchanged and the stories we told each other; I would miss all of that. Unfortunately, my Esther was gone and so were all of those things. All that would remain was memories.
That evening after supper I watched a little bit of TV with my dad before I went to sleep, a saddened little boy. I think it was then that my dad and I had our first little relationships talk. I remember he mentioned something about Esther and how I was probably going to miss her but I could not say much and just listened. My memory can’t serve me well though on the conversation. But on what I can remember, before I went to sleep, I remembered the card Esther had given me earlier and it read,
Dear Brandon,
I want you to know that I love you and I will always do. You changed my life and made it special. For that, I will never forget you. That doll you bought me means the world to me. One day we will meet again and continue loving each other. I just wish that when that day comes, you wouldn’t have forgotten about me for I will never forget about you and all we were.
Love Esther
NB: This is just my modified edition of the letter as it was written in a ‘child’s English’