Jesse,
I want you to know that I have always loved you. The man I married… he was nothing like you. You may ask, then, why did I marry him? He was natural. I'd be able to have a natural life with him. He loved me more than I could express in words, but I didn't love him as much as I loved you. After you Tucks ran, I never thought I'd see you again. Never once did you come back to Treegap. I lost hope. I fell in love with you, and you left me. When my seventeenth day of birth came, I had to choose…Live forever searching for somebody that has gone, or live a healthy life with somebody who would give me the world. You can see why I choose this.
When he wanted children, I lay awake many nights wondering how I could give any children to a man who wasn't you. By the time our first child, Mae Winifred Jackson, was born, the memory of our love had faded, and only glimmers came at random times. I loved you, but I lost you. When I lay with Mae, looking out at the forest, I wondered if I made the right decision. I came to the thought that; If you live forever, is it really a life? Doesn't dieing complete this cycle? I spent many nights thinking about it.
The birth of our son, Jesse Miles Jackson, made me remember when we first met. That was very fun, but it had almost been erased from my memories. JM was just like you, Jesse. He was fun, carefree, and most crazy, JM found the spring. He will still walk this Earth when I am faded and gone. At seventeen, he looks exactly like Miles. It tore me apart when I realized that JM had drunken from the spring. He would never get older, never die. JM would lose everybody, for he couldn't fall in love. JM will always be looking for the two people he was named after.
Anyways, the forest got caught in an electrical storm, and had to be taken out. Nobody occupied my old cottage, so they tore it down. The land still belongs to me. Since my daughter has already moved on, and my son cannot stay in Treegap, I want you and your family to have it. I know you won't be there often, but it's a nice place to get away. Many memories. The tree has sprouted again, and I have spotted a very small spring near it.
Jesse, If you are reading this, then I have already moved on. I have not drunken the spring water, for I think it is more than a wonderful charm. That water is NOT a blessing. It's a burden, a curse. I pity any who wish to have the water, for they no nothing about life. They don't have the wisdom to make such a choice. Those, like JM, don't know what that pring can do. And You have kept it a secret. The secret dies with me, and JM will find you.
With Everlasting Love,
Winifred Foster Jackson
