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Tears race down my face. I release a choked breath and turn to get up, but Liam grabs my arm and pulls me back. “No, you don’t get to do that.”
“I just need a moment.”
“You don’t get that either. You asked. I told you. I won’t feel bad about it. It’s the truth. It’s life. You don’t get to run from it.” He cups my cheek. “Can I show you something?” His thumb strokes my cheek, waiting for a reply.
“Sure.”
When he gets out of bed and walks over to his dresser, I can’t help but admire his tight tush. He pulls out a stack of papers and brings them back into bed.
“What are these?” I ask as he searches for one and hands it to me.
“It’s why I did what I did.”
I look down at the piece of paper he hands me. It’s a letter. “Is this. . .from Billy?” I’d recognize my brother’s handwriting anywhere.
“It is. He sent it to me a couple months after he left.”
I look at him, and he nods, giving me permission to read it.
Liam –
Hope this letter makes it to you. I promised you I would write, so you knew I was still alive. Feel like a damn pussy writing you. Next I’m gonna put hearts and kisses. Man, I need to get a girl the second I get home.
Things are crazy here. More intense than I expected. It’s taking me some time to adjust. I haven’t been here long, but I’ve already seen some fucked up shit. Stuff I could never tell my parents or Holls. But in the chaos, there’s some good coming out of this.
I don’t know how to explain it. There are so many kids here. No roof over their heads or proper meals. Wish I could do more, but we’re low on resources, and I can only do so much.
Met this little boy yesterday. He can’t be older than five or six. I can see his fucking bones. I’ve been bringing him half of my meals so he gets some meat on him. And you know what he does? He takes it back to his little hut and feeds it to his younger siblings. A fucking five-year-old being the caretaker. How fucked up is that?
I’m going to try to see what I can do to get some more supplies. More food. These kids are starving. God knows he’s just one of many.
Running out of room in this happy love letter. Give my sister a hug for me. Tell her I miss the living shit out of her. Hope she’s doing okay. Your ass better be taking good care of her, or I’m gonna beat it. Kidding. I trust you like a brother. Watch over her. She needs you right now.
Write more when I can.
Love, your boyfriend,
Billy
I can barely read his signature through my tears.
“The letters go on and on. The malnutrition of the kids. Starving families, dying left and right. His team could only do so much. While Billy was there, he never stopped pushing to get more supplies to civilians. He wrote to the US Agency for International Development about the conditions and how they need to supply some grants to bring in food and clean water. Medicine and clothes. They had none of this. A few weeks before he died, his request was granted. He wrote to me, telling me all the things he planned on doing.”
Liam shuffles through the letters and hands me one dated two weeks before he died.
Liam –
Merry Christmas, honey! Man, I miss the holidays in Willow Falls. You all getting Mr. Garrison to secretly hook you up with his hot cocoa? How’s my sister? Tell her I miss her, but don’t make her cry. Hate for you to have to deal with the fallout. They don’t really celebrate Christmas here, unless you consider holiday cards posted to cots celebrating. But I have some news worth celebrating. I finally got a reply back from the head of the Peace Corps. They looked into my request for more supplies and funding. This means, in the next year, I’ll supply food to kids in need. Clothes, school supplies. These kids will have the chance to see their fifth, tenth, twentieth birthdays. Because someone is giving them a chance. Once the supplies come in, it’s going to take about a year until completion. It’s gonna put me past my tour, and Mom is gonna be pissed. But I have to do this. For them. They have no one else. I came here to change lives, and that’s what I plan on doing. This place and what the Corps does is amazing. Wish you could experience it with me.
Well, enough about me. Hope you all had a great Christmas. Better have spoiled my sister. She deserves it. Miss you, bro. When I get home, we’re hitting up Gunther’s for bottomless wings. Your treat.
