Holding the first one in my lap, I still remember the day I posted it.
I’d only been in Brisbane a couple of weeks.
I was missing her so much.
Hadn’t written during those early months in Longreach.
Less chance of being tracked down in the city though.
More than one post office.
I marvel at my messy teenage handwriting.
But I avoid reading what it says.
My leaving note lays half folded between stacks two and three.
The one I wrote the morning I ran away.
I can’t handle looking at it, so I hand it to Amos.
“As much as I’ve missed you,” she says, her voice already trembling. “And I really have missed you so much... I wassoproud of you for what you did.”
The floor curves slightly beneath me.
Perhaps I’m just dizzy.
It’s all a bit overwhelming.
“You got free, Marco. Something I've never had the courage to do.”
She smiles through the pain.
I hold her hand in mine.
“Yes I cried for you, sweetheart. But my tears weren’t just sad.”
“No?”
“No. I was relieved that one of us had the chance to live a better life.”
I can’t find the words.
She cups my face the way she used to do when I was small.
“If you’d stayed here, you might have ended up a very different man.”
Her eyes shine with pride.
We both know it’s true.
“But look at you now, my beautiful boy.”
That’s when I break.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m sorry for leaving you here with him. I just couldn’t…”
“I know,” she murmurs. “I’m sorry too. Should have left him before I got pregnant.”
