A further installment of the correspondence between Luke and Jamie. Click here for the last one.
Or click here to go back to the first one.
Dear Jamie,
I'm sorry I din't get a chance to write to you before I left. I've been travelling and I've just arrived home, in Kwalaylee. It hasn't changed. The road is still red and dusty and there arent' any more houses than there were all those years ago. The roofs have holes in them, but people have come back and they've been fixing them.
I'm going to stay here for a while. I am sorry I didn't get to see you when you came to visit (your letters were forwarded to me) but I decided to leave on the spur of the moment. I missed you too. It's been difficult this change, this move. Sometimes I can't help but feel that I didn't make the best of our time together. With all the best intentions to enjoy the moment to its fullest, I somehow managed to slip and let it go.
But that's history. I've stopped trying to figure everything out. You and I are so much more than we would like to believe or imagine even. And just because we're apart now doesn't mean it's going to be that way always. We both needed this time to get on with other things, wouldn't you agree? I miss you too.
Don't worry about Clara not telling you everything, she's just getting on with her life, as you said. Do you remember the times we'd all sit around and complain about...just about everything? We laughed too, but all that energy we spent talking about nothing constructive... Can you imagine ever going back to that? I certainly can't. No one likes a moaner.
Being back in Kwalaylee after all these years is just wonderful. As I got nearer, I got that same feeling that we used to get when we were kids coming here all those years ago, that feeling of really coming home.
Of course, most of the people we once knew here are gone. In fact, they're all gone... But somehow, it still feels like home. The tall trees, and the mist in the morning, the rice birds, the smell from the palm kernel mill nearby, the twitching blue butterflies...it's all still here, despite the last few years of war. Fortunately that's been over for a while now.
Sometimes I can't believe that war ever happened, as though it were a long nightmare. But it did happen. I just can't believe how long it took for the world to come to the rescue. Help has come, even if it is only because there are rumours of untapped natural resources. Remains to be seen if the people here will benefit.
I've been talking to many Kwalayleeans. It's amazing how much they do with so little. It embarrasses me to think of the small things I've complained about when I see how much they cope with here and yet still have time for a genuine smile. Coming back has been such an awakening.
Jamie, look after yourself, and just get on with things. Remember the past but don't dwell on it: nothing will ever bring it back. We've still got so much to live, so many things to do!! And we're so lucky we can! Every moment is new, but it's up to us not to keep having the same tired old thoughts.
I love you. Today. Yesterday. Always. Don't ever forget it.
Luke
