Dear R
In this wildest of Winters, the rain just keeps pouring down. Nothing feels certain on all this water-logged ground. You were late back last night and I was more restless than the wind until I heard your key turn in the lock and knew you were home. I don't know where this season will take us. You worry about how it will end, disillusioned with how it is now. I keep looking back to see how far we've come.
Once upon a time...
Do you remember? You made the long journey to see me in that place by the sea that should have been called Far it took forever and a day to get to. I met you at the station on a night as wild as this one. You stood on the platform clutching a broken cactus in one hand and hope in the other. I was so very glad to see you. You stilled the storm in me. I took you back to that little first floor flat tucked into the hillside just below the National Library where I lived - the first place that had ever felt like home to me. That's where it all began, where you first kissed me and we dared to believe in the uncertain promise of tomorrow.
This Winter's storms have hit that town hard these past few weeks. Pictures on the news show the damage done: parts of the sea wall pounded away, the collapsed pavilion, the promenade littered with debris and the water flooding in. It's hard to keep faith on days like these, to believe in permanence when everything is being washed away.
I believe in us. We've weathered enough storms to know the foundations are solid. It doesn't matter how hard the wind blows or how high the flood waters rise. We'll hold tight and mark the tide-line on the wall so when we look back we can say even then, even then not just once upon a time, the promise proved true.
I love you,
Lx
