Dear Jamie

Chapter: 1

 

I try to think of something to contest. My passion for her was rather unexplainable. She came out of nowhere into my life but due to circumstances I had to leave her. It hurt me more than anybody could ever know; the pain was great. Our story; our love will forever be sacred in this vintage journal I took from my little sister, Emma. A string of words I conveyed to express the things I think and project the right effect. These memoirs are what keeps me from forgetting her; Oh my Jamie.

I was a young lad of 17 in 1939 when I had met Jamie. Father was a marine so we moved a lot. We had moved six times by the time I was nine years old. Finally, we settled in a small town in Maryland named Hancock.  It resides in Washington County with a population of less than 2,000. It is also located on the western part of Maryland and only 2 miles wide. At first, I hated it because there was nothing much to do there, but when I met Jamie everything changed.

“Why of all places do we have to end up here?” I asked impatiently to my father.

“You know the answer to your own question, Richard” my father replied.

“There’s nothing here!” I yelled as I stormed up to my room from the kitchen.

“Oh, dear” I heard my mother call out.

“Turn on the radio!” I heard Emma scream. My mother obliged to her request; then we heard it- Nazi Germany had just invaded Poland.

“Germany invades Poland!” said the announcer through the scratchy sounding radio we had propped up on the tile kitchen table. I ran back downstairs to see if it was really true what I had just heard.

“Is it true?” I asked to no one in particular.

“Oh my god” my mother gasped as she put her right hand to her mouth.

“You’d think they come here?” Emma asked.

“If they do try-they’d be sorry” my father responded with a cool look in his eyes. Then the kitchen back door opened and a woman about my mother’s age burst in followed by a younger girl about my age.

“Did you hear, Martha?!” the older woman asked my mother.

“Yes, I did, Bonnie. Its unbelievable.” my mother responded.

“Father is in shock. We have family there.” said the younger girl. I had no clue who these women were. I suppose because I was always locked in my room since we moved here, oblivious to my mother’s rapid friendships with just about everybody that lived in this ghastly town. Nevertheless, I was hypnotized by the younger girl’s beauty. She had dark brown hair than ran to her shoulders and the most beautiful green eyes. Well, they were actually green and grey. She had this silky caramel skin and a smile that could light this whole town. I’ve never been one to fall in love but I was falling for this girl even though I didn’t even know her. I mean she was just so gorgeous.

“Hi, I don’t think we’ve met. You must be Richard. I’m Jamie,” the beautiful girl smiled at me.

“Uh, yeah. I’m….I’m….Richard,” I stuttered. God do I have to be such a dork, I thought. However, to my surprise she smiled at me again.

“Nice to meet you, Richard” she said. “So I’ve heard you’re enlisting in the army”

“Who said that? My mother, of course.” I said exasperated.

“She doesn’t want you to get hurt, that’s all” Jamie said.

“It’s my life. I do what I want.” I told her.

“Ok, Mr. Macho man.” Jamie joked. I tried not to smile. Our parents were now sitting in the living room drinking tea and eating corn bread while intently listening to the radio.

“Hey, do you want to head out to the porch? It’s such a nice day, today.” I asked Jamie.

“Sure,” she responded with a grin.

“You do smile a lot. People might think you’re simple.” I teased.

“I’m happy and there’s nothing wrong with being happy, right?” she said with a smirk.

“No there’s not,” I told her as I opened the door leading to the front porch. We each took a rocking chair to sit in and talked for a while. She said she wanted to be a lawyer someday, travel the world, and have a lot of kids.

“How many you want?” I asked

“Oh, maybe 4. Three boys and one girl,” she said while she looked at her watch.

“Shoot! Its 5:30 and I was supposed to be at the Constance residence twenty minutes ago to babysit their kids!” she yelled. “I have to go” and then she ran down the porch steps. As she ran she yelled out, “Bye, Richie!” I watched as her silhouette disappeared around the corner and did I mention she had an amazing body.