Pride

As Kopa got home, he sat down in his chair in front of the fire. He rubbed his face with his hands as he felt Bettina’s eyes on him.

“Well?” she asked him.

“She needed advice regarding the letter she got,” he said.

“Well, I figured that much out,” she told him, rolling her eyes. He smiled at her. She was more than he deserved. Both his girls were.

“The woman she has been writing to is the mother of that boy. He has been adding letters of his own,” Kopa said.

“This time he told her he was …” Kopa needed to take a couple of deep breaths. Just the thought about it made him feel like he needed to punch something or someone.

“That he was what?”

“That he was disappointed in Mary” Kopa said. He could feel his teeth grind as he clenched his jaw.

“He did what?” Bettina exclaimed. Kopa looked over at his wife. His wife, that always was calm and collected, now looked like she could kill someone. He somehow forgot how scary she looked when she got angry.

“I will go to that city, and I will find that boy and I will teach him what happens when he tells my daughter he is disappointed in her,” she growled.

Somehow, Bettina’s anger made his own anger lessen. He looked at her and couldn’t help but smile. If that Zerden boy had the misfortune to come across Bettina, he would be in big trouble.

“Mary had already figured out that she has had enough of him. She wanted to know if it was alright to cut off communication as it would mean that she had to say goodbye to his mother as well,” Kopa then told Bettina.

“That’s my Mary,” she said proudly, a smile once again showed on her face.

“I told her that her friend would understand”

“Good. She doesn’t need all that in her life. I’m so proud of her, that she is ready to let him go. It’s difficult when it’s your first love,” Bettina said. Kopa nodded.

“Apparently Anna had asked Mary to thank us on her behalf for taking such good care of Mary”

“She sounds like a good woman. I would have loved to meet her. So, Mary is okay?”

“She is. I think she will write a last letter to her friend, letting her know she is okay and not to worry,” Kopa said.

“Good, she is always caring for others, our Mary,” Bettina pointed out.

“That she is. We are lucky to have her for a daughter,” Kopa said smiling.

---

As Mary got back to her room, both her friends were sitting in the bay window reading. Mary had things she needed to read as well. But she felt like she needed to write her last letter. She wanted to let go of the past.

She settled down at her desk and stared down at the empty paper in front of her. This was going to be difficult.

‘Dear Anna,

I’m so pleased to hear that things are looking up for you. That gives me hope that this wave of the sickness will fade as well.

I want to thank you for your kind words. They mean so much to me and I will always remember them. I told my father about your kind words, and he was grateful.

That brings me to the difficult part of this letter. This is not something that is easy for me to write, or to think about doing. But I feel like it has to be done.

Last time I wrote, I was taking the acceptance test to become an aari. Well, as you said, I made it and have now moved into the sanctum to start my training.

With my training, my lessons with Tenac and going home to visit my family, I don’t think I will be able to keep up with our correspondence. It’s not my meaning to say that you don’t mean a lot to me, or that you are not important. You are and you do. But this will be my last letter.

I talked about this with my father, and he told me that sometimes you have to let people you care about go, that if you care enough for each other, you will understand it and accept it. I think he is right.

I will always see you as my friend and I will never forget you or what you have done for me. Maybe someday we will meet again. But for now, I need to focus on my new life and to become the person who I know you always saw in me. I’m so grateful for having you in my life.

Please give my love to your husband and Zerden. I will think of you always.

Your friend
Mary

Dear Zerden,

This will be my last letter. I don’t know what to say to you. There are so many things that are left unspoken and so many memories. You have been such a central part of my life for so long that letting you go feels unreal.

I’m disappointed in you, Zerden. I wish I wasn’t, that I could be the bigger person. But I can’t. I thought you were my friend, but I was wrong. Thinking you could be happy for me was wrong as well. I’m disappointed in you for not being the man that I know you can be. I’m sorry it had to end like this.

Please listen to your father and your mother. They want what is best for you.

With regard
Mary”

Mary read through the letter once after she was done. She had decided that she didn’t need to tell Zerden’s mother why she would stop writing. It wouldn’t do any difference and Mary couldn’t face disappointing Anna in the last letter she would write to her.

As she sealed her letter, Mary felt a tear glide down her cheek. It was followed by another and without knowing why; she started crying.

“Mary, is something wrong?” Firlea asked as she saw Mary’s tears.

“No, it’s fine. I just had to say goodbye to a friend,” Mary told her, wiping the tears away. But new ones appeared.

“Come here,” Hinat said, holding her arms out.

The evening ended with the three friends curled up in the bay window, Mary in the middle. Her two friends didn’t ask her for details. They knew she was hurting and that was enough.

This is friendship, Mary thought as her two friends kept her company as her tears kept flowing. When they had dried, they did their best to make her feel better. She felt better just by being there.

It hurt to let go of her past, but as she was squished by her two friends. She was reminded that she had a future that, hopefully, was full of laughter and shared memories with new friends.

As they went to bed that night, Mary already felt better. She would ask her father to send her letter the next day. Then she was going to focus on her studies, her family, and her new friends. She was proud of herself. She had stood up for how she felt, and she had followed through.