Memories
in a box :You're always in my heart.
Don looking through a box full of letters and photographs that were sent by him to his mother during the years he was away from home, training in Quantico and his Fugitive Recovery Days with Coop.
Character: Don and Coop
Don
came back to an empty house, again.
He sighed and did the usual
things, threw his coat onto a chair, threw his car keys on the table
and slowly undid the gun in the holster from his belt, took out his
badge and put them away neatly inside the drawer.
He went to the kitchen and saw a note propped up on the table. His father knew he was coming today but they both have their respective dates booked for this evening.
His father's note to him was,
Donny,
we are out on dates, separate ones. Found some things in the garage you might want
to go through. Dad.
I've prepared a chicken stew
for you, reheat on low for 20 minutes.
There's fresh bread in
the breadbox.
Belonged to your mom, in a box on the dinning
table.
Take whatever you want.
There's a bed upstairs with
your name, use it."
Don smiled at the last sentence, he hardly ever use the bed upstairs, it was either he was too lazy to go up or that he found the couch much more comfortable and convenient and anyway, he needed to zip right back to his apartment in the early hours to shower and change before he reported for work.
Well, maybe for a change, he might want to surprise his dad and really sleep in the bed with his name.
He wondered about the box and what it contained, but that had to wait while he put the stew to heat.
He went upstairs and took a quick shower, came down in borrowed clothes from his father. He made a note to himself to bring back all the borrowed clothes and to bring some of his own here, after all, there's still a room and a bed with his name on it.
He was so glad that Charlie bought the
house and he can still come back here and have family meals with
Charlie and his father.
He loved this house where he and Charlie
grew up, all the childhood memories were all stored in here.
The
memories of his mother during their childhood, and then their
adulthood, there sad times but the happy times outweighed the sad
ones.
Come to think of it there were not many sad times but the few there were, this one took the cake, and it was when their beloved mother passed away after months of battling with the dreaded disease.
He shook his head and went to the kitchen when he heard the soft 'ting' of the micro.
He took the whole small pot of stew to the dinning table, went back to cut a few slices of bread and went to the fridge to take out a bottle of beer, opened it and went back to the dinning room for his late dinner of stew chicken made specially for him by his father.
It was slightly eerie dinning in semi darkness, just the light from the sitting room and the light that filtered through the windows and it suited him just fine, he didn't need the bright light.
He looked up and saw his mother's photo from the top of the tall cupboard, it seemed that his mother was looking at him.
He smiled at the photo and
then he remembered the box his father mentioned on the note.
He
saw the box at the edge of the table, it was medium box, the type
that courier services used.
He pulled over to his side and saw
that it was tied up with a string, he left it aside and started
eating his dinner.
After his dinner, he cleared the table and took his remaining beer, went into the sitting room with the box.
He placed the box on the low table and undid the string and took off the cover.
He slowly took out the contents, it was bundles of letters tied together, some were small packages.
He read flipped through the letters and he knew that these were letters that he wrote to his mother during his Quantico training days.
There were other bundles where he wrote to her when he was posted to Fugitive Recovery.
His heart was in his mouth, he had to blinked a few times, his mother kept all the letters he that wrote to her. He was sure that his dad had read them too.
He took out a small bundle and saw the dates that these were from his training days, he opened the one page letter, it seemed pitiful that he had so little things to say to his mother, now that he re-read what he wrote.
It started with My Dear Mom and it ended with you're
always in my heart wherever I am, with lots of love and kisses,
Don.
He took out another, and it started with Dear Mom and the
next sentence got him thinking…..
Gotta rush, just a short note
to say that I am well and doing what I'm suppose to be doing and a
few more sentences and a line or two to his dad and Charlie and it
ended with you're always in my heart wherever I am, with lots of
love and kisses, Don.
There were many one page letters that he
wrote to his mom and from the creases, he knew that his mom must have
read it many times and now he blinked his eyes a few times.
What a
cad he was and there was his mother reading his short and sometimes
very short one page letters over and over again and trying to get
what he was doing and how he was doing.
Just as bad were his phone calls back home, he'll talk to his father then his mother and very seldom to Charlie and all short conversations.
He took out another bundle, the letters were slightly thicker and he was glad that as the years progressed, he wrote quite long letters to his mom , he had more time to himself then, so he wrote about anything and everything when he was in the mood and he remembered it was just like he was talking to his mom .
The creases on the letter were still there and he randomly took out another and this time the creases were so bad that it almost tore the letter. He was curious as to what he wrote that made his mom kept on reading the letter.
He took out three pages from the envelope and with a shock he saw that the last page was added on and without his knowledge, it was written by Coop.
What the! He read his two pages to his mom; it
started with Dear mom,
He wrote that it had been sometime he
picked up the pen and he was sorry. He told his mom that he was on a
case and had not much time for he was stalking a bad person (he tried
not to tell his mom the gory details or the very vicious criminals he
and Coop were stalking.)
He said he can write now that it was
Coop's turn to watch and after two pages he kept it in his jacket
pocket and it turn out that they had managed to catch the criminals
that night but not without a fight.
Don ended up in hospital with a stabbed wound to his shoulder and from one day in the hospital; it became a week because he had high fever caused by an infection to the wound.
At that time in the hospital Coop stayed with him and he did remembered telling Coop to post that letter for him.
He took out the 3rd page and read what Coop wrote to his mother.
Dear
Mrs. Eppes, I am Coop and I was working with Don on this
latest case which was a success and I am now posted to another case.
You
can call him after two weeks but please do not ask him about the
case, he is not at liberty to say anything, he might tell you if you
insisted but it would be better if you do not. Don't worry
he's alright and I leave you my contact number just in case.
Yours sincerely, Coop.
Don won't be free for the next two weeks cause he was called as
a witness to testify on an earlier case we worked on .It is in a
locked session, meaning he cannot contact or be contacted.
He
remembered that after he left the hospital, he was given another two
weeks to recuperate and a week after his discharge, he received a
phone call from his mother.
He was surprised to hear from her
and the conversation was that his mother asked about him and told him
be sure to thank Coop for taking care of things for him. And one
thing he was surprised was that his mom asked if he'd forgotten to
end his letter and she laughed and said if she was still always in
his heart.
He was a bit puzzled then told her that always, she'll
always be in his heart.
He dare not say much for he knew his parents didn't know about his hospital stay.
He talked about general things with his mother and avoided talking about his work this time and was surprised that his mother did not ask him about it.
He went back to partner with Coop on another long case and they were kept so busy that he had entirely forgotten about asking Coop about what his mother said.
His parents had no clue about his hospital stay and it was all forgotten until now.
He must remember to thank Coop for covering it up for him.
He turned back to his two pages and saw that he did not end the letter and in fact the last line he wrote was that he had to go and do his job and will continue later.
He put back the letter and he took out a bulky package,opened it and saw some photos dropped out of it.
It was an office year end party and they were clowning around and he was in a very happy mood, he was going home for three weeks holidays.
Coop must have sent this to his mother and he
didn't remember his mother telling him or showing him those
photos.
There was a note attached to it.
Mrs.
Eppes, I thought you might like to have these photos of Don.
You can see him clowning around the office with his colleagues, and
that's me holding a cup next to Don. I don't think Don
would want to show these photos around, so I thought I'll send it
on to you. Regards, Coop.
That
sneak, Don thought .
Don put back all neatly into the box. He was
not sure if he wanted these. It brought back sad memories for him but
then it was his mom's, so he decided to tell his father that he'll
keep the box.
He put the cover back and tied the string round it. He'll show it to Charlie one of these days but not now. It's his to keep, his mother's box of memories and now it's his.
His mother, she will always be in his heart wherever he will be.
Yes, mom, you're always here, Don put his hand to his heart, lay back on the couch and fell asleep.
That's how Alan found him two hours later, sleeping on the couch and he noticed that the box was beside him.
"Don, Don…. go upstairs." Alan shook him but he did not stir. Alan gave up and tooka blanket from the cupboard and put it over him.
The end
May 2007