Letters from Home

<<ooc: let me know, via PM, if you're interested in writing with me, thanks>>



I hope your travels are safe back to the US.

With love,
Kelly

Sure, it was an old fashion way to comminucate but writting letters was not a dead art. It was a great way to make a letter feel more personal and for Kelly, personal was always a good thing.

She folded the letter and placed it carefully in the envelope and sealed it before turning it over and looking at the address.. it was for a military camp located in Honduras. Her return address was also listed but it was a for a PO Box that she kept for business for herself.

It had all begun with a lull in her writing that Kelly had come across a program that her church had sponsored. Writing to those soldiers overseas to give them a sense of being home and keeping up with those in the states. At first, she didn't really reveal too much about herself... her first letter was a generic one but as time went on, the letters had more meaning. They had agreed not to exchange phone numbers nor email addresses. Often times, Kelly wouldn't hear from him for weeks and there were times she was geniuenly worried that they had lost touch. And when she thought that, a letter would appear in her mailbox almost within the following week.

She didn't tell him what she did for a living and he never really got into specifics about what he was doing there. Yet, their letters had so much in them that she truly enjoyed it when she got something from him.

Her last letter, she had revealed her age and in his return letter, he did also.

To say she was shocked to find he was only 28 to her 41 years... it was a lot to take in. Well, what was age, anyway? It was just a number, right?

The next time, pictures were exchanged and in no way did he change the way he communicated with her. In fact, his letters seemed more in depth...more personal...

He would be back home in the United States in less than two weeks and that meant her letter would reach him just in time before he would have to leave. It was a bittersweet letter. One that implied this would be their last time writing to each other...

Michael Kelly wasn't much of a writer. When he received the first letter, he read it, tucked it in his front shirt pocket, and forgot about it. It was three days later, after returning from a recon mission into the jungle that he found it again, and it was only because he was changing shirts.

He re-read the letter. As he focused on the words, it was nice to have some information from home... well, from back in the States. He had been sent to Honduras to train the local troops and help them hold off a rebel group that was threatening to overtake the

Michael was very good at what he did. After enrolling in the Marine Corp after high school, he rapidly made his presence known. He took classes online and got his college degree, and then went to OCS. Now, with the rank of Captain, and 10 years experience as a Marine, Michael was the one that was sent to do a lot of the dirty work... much of which was considered Black Ops. These were missions people didn't want to talk about.

He decided to respond to Kelly's letter, and, in return, he received another letter. This went on for a while. When Michael found out he was going home.... for a while anyway, he figured that would be the end of his contact with Kelly. There was a part of him that was disappointed. Even though he had learned that she was older than he was, there had still been an emotional connection that had been made, and he was going to miss that.

He had shared a lot about himself in the letters to Kelly. That was unusual for him. He didn't open up to anyone about personal issues. Michael had shared about growing up without a father (he had left shortly after Michael was born.) Michael shared about losing his mother to a drug overdose only days before his high school graduation, and his girlfriend dumping him shortly after his mother's funeral. Michael shared how the Marine Corps was his family, and that it was the first time he felt a connection to anyone or anything... until Kelly (he didn't add that last part to the letter.)

He received what he figured would be his last letter from her as he was packing to head home. He had no idea how long he would be there, but at least he was getting out of the jungle. On the plane ride back, he contemplated going and looking for her. He didn't have an address, but he had a town where the PO box was from. He put that out of his mind, and slept the whole flight back.

After landing and going through some debriefing, Michael headed out. He had 4 weeks leave, and he had no plans of what to do with it. He got in his car and started driving. Before he knew it, he was sitting outside of a post office.

It was a muggy day. The sprinkles of rain were a preview of what was predicted to come later that evening, so Kelly rushed with a purpose to the post office to pick up her daily mail. She was a vlogger on YouTube, mostly blogging about cooking and home orgainization... kinda boring to the average person really, but she had just hit 1 million subscribers last week and she was elated. It meant people, mostly housewives, loved her content. It was a big accomplishment really but it wasn't something she bragged about. Not many people in her small town knew what she did.

Once she checked her post office box, it hit her that she wouldn't be receiving anymore letters from Michael. It drew a frown upon her face but she quickly had to recover when someone walked by her to their mailbox. She grabbed the letters and two small packages left for her and headed out, tucking them under her coat.

When she left the post office, she realized it was raining harder and that caused her to run to her car. It was sort of comical as she dropped her keys and it took her a few minutes to get a hold on them before she opened the door and got in. She drove straight home and never noticed someone following her.

He felt dirty sitting in the car outside the post office. It was as if he was stalking someone. When he thought about it more, he figured that, technically, he was stalking someone, but he did not have any bad intentions. He simply wanted to say hello to Kelly in person.

That was her. He saw Kelly walk into the post office. He started to get out of the car. Then, he stopped. It would be better to do it on a public street; that way it would be less threatening. He waited a couple of minutes.

The rain started to come down, and then it rained harder. Kelly came out of the post office, and Michael paused. Going up to her as it was pouring rain would not be a good thing, so, he stayed in the car. He watched as she bent over to pick up her keys after dropping them. There was something funny about watching her try to pick them up, but there was also the view of her from behind that he had that was so captivating.

She got in her car and drove away. Michael paused for a second, and then decided to follow her. Once she pulled up to a house and went inside, Michael paused for a moment. His mind raced with thoughts. "Should he do it? What if it isn't her house? What if it is her boyfriend's house?" He decided to go for it, and went up to the door and knocked. When she came to the door, he smiled.

"Hello Kelly."

Kelly had been in the kitchen, staring into her fridge for the past few minutes. She had missed lunch and figured she'd have an early dinner, then she'd work on some stuff until bedtime.

It was the usual routine for her. She had preferred to be a hermit in her own home rather than a social butterfly. Maybe that's why her last relationships hadn't worked in the past? Even her ex-husband, who she still had as a friend on facebook, seemed to imply when he could.

Jerk.

Just as she had decided to order out, her doorbell rang and that made her frown. Who was that? UPS probably? It was no use guessing, it was raining after all and whoever that was, she needed to answer it.

It was a small town and Kelly wasn't in any danger, nor had she ever been so, without looking, she opened the door and looked up.

"Hello Kelly."

And like that, she knew who it was.

"Michael." She said and couldn't help but throw herself in his arms.

After ringing the doorbell, he almost turned around and left. He started to think that it was way to creepy what he was doing, and that he should leave now. It was too late.

"Kelly, I am sorry for doing this. I really am. I don't know why I am here." He stammered to find the right words to say to her.

"I did not mean to follow you to your home. I just wanted to say hi to you at the post office and move on, but then I couldn't stop you with the way it was raining. Although, it was fun to watch you try to pick up your keys." He smiled at her.

"I got 4 weeks leave after getting back in country and was just driving trying to figure out what to do and I ended up in front of the post office. I understand if you are angry. I just wanted to say hello, and thank you for making my time in Honduras somewhat bearable."

He turned to leave.