12 Paper thoughts

With Fumihiro working on the broth and Benjiro chopping up the vegetables and meat, preparation only took about half an hour. But when cooking soup, where the thing needed most is time to let things simmer, they were left with practically nothing to do for nearly an hour.

As father and son sat down to slurp on their soup, things grew quiet again. A sudden thought occurred to Fumihiro.

"Hey, Ben, with everything that's happened, when was the last time you sent a letter to Mine?"

Benjiro stopped mid-slurp. He swallowed and set the bowl down.

"Oh s***t."

"Hey, watch your mouth."

"S-sorry. But n-no, I haven't. J-jeez, how long has it b-been since I sent one?"

"It's been quite a while. I don't believe that I've seen you write one since we came here."

Benjiro pictured Inei slapping him.

"So, I haven-n't sent a letter t-to one of m-my best, slash, only friends s-since we left from Okinawa? Which w-would be roughly... three months."

"So it would seem."

"W-wait, h-how do y-you remember about m-me f-forgetting to wr-write to Mine?"

"I received a letter today that I left sitting on your desk upstairs. It got forwarded here from the base since it had our old mailing address on it.

Benjiro slumped back in his chair and slapped his forehead

"Welp, n-now I feel like a j-jerk. I should pr-probably go write one n-now before I forget again."

He started to get out of his chair before his Dad stopped him.

"Hold up just a minute mister. Where are you off to?"

"To r-read a piece of m-mail from my friend th-that I haven't seen in forever."

"You didn't finish eating yet."

"Can't it wait a m-moment."

"No, because whenever you get started you can practically disappear into your writing for God knows how long and I don't feel like hearing you b***ch about it in the morning. Eat first, write your letter later."

"What was th-that about watching m-my mouth?"

"Hey, don't get testy with me."

"Myeh"

"You're the one who forgot up until now."

"This w-would be so m-much easier-r if I h-had her n-numb-ber."

"To be fair, the last time you saw Mine you were both a little young to be owning a cell phone."

"The last time I saw Mine not owning a cell phone was the least of our worries."

'True', Fumihiro thought, 'the three of you were all more than a little too young to be walking through hell at that age. '

After dinner was finished and the dishes were cleared, Fumihiro knew he couldn't keep his son downstairs any longer. With nothing more to do, Benjiro wandered upstairs, saying he was going to change clothes and peruse the internet for a while after he read the letter. Which was half true. When he got into his room, he took off his shirt, and just stared at his body for a minute, examining his chest and back. Luckily there were only a couple bruises. They weren't all that big but they were that one peculiar shade of greenish yellow.

'Most likely from that one guy who probably took boxing lessons based on that stance he took.'

He gave a minor gasp and flinched a little when he touched the wounds. The ice had helped with keeping the swelling down, so now the only thing he could do was wait for them to fade in their own time. He took another look into the mirror and just sighed.

'Pathetic.'

He went over to his desk and looked at the envelope. Most people would think it was old-fashioned and inefficient to send a letter rather than just shoot a text, but as he pointed out earlier, the last time he saw his best friend, she didn't have a phone to exchange a number with. But even if he did, he thought a letter seemed better for some reason. He ripped open the envelope and looked it over. Her handwriting was still better than anything he could scrawl out. He began to read:

Hey Benji,

You haven't written in a while you jerk. What's up with that? So, I decided that I'd be the one to reach out first since I figured you probably forgot. How are things going on your end? Are you learning how to surf or go scuba diving? I know if I were you I'd be living that up as much as I could. You're probably brown as a tree with all that sunshine.

Things back here aren't going too badly. I took up a club, but I'm going to keep what it is a secret for now. I'm not exactly an expert, but they say that if we continue to improve, we could have a decent chance at our district competition. It feels nice to be a part of something with so many other people. It's hard work, but whenever things feel too difficult, we have this ritual of sorts. We go back and repeat more basic things we've learned and it's interesting seeing how far we've come. And now that I'm finally a part of something that bully Ashitomi has steered clear. I guess it's true what they say about how most of them are just afraid.

School is about as mind-numbing as you'd expect but I'm managing to get by somehow. I still kind of wish you were here to make it a little more bearable. Both Mom and Dad told me to ask how you're doing. Eizo and Kazusa have also been pestering me for details for a while now.

I hope things are going well. I remember you saying that one of the older kids was teaching you how to play guitar and someone was also teaching you piano. I think that's a really cool thing to learn, but that's too complex for me. I wouldn't know how to do two different things with my hands or with my feet.

Are you sleeping alright or are those nightmares still bothering you? You'd better still be going to therapy, cause if you're not, I'm going to track you down and drag you to it if I need to.

Anyway to kind of wrap things up here, you had better write me back, tell me all the important details of what's happening right now and I hope things are going well within that brain of yours. Maybe I can come to visit soon. That's about all I have to say for now.

As always,

Mine :)

Benjiro chuckled a little at the little smiley face she always put on her signatures. He read and reread it a few times to make sure he didn't miss any details. When the contents of the letter had somewhat sunk into his memory he took out a sheet of paper from one of the cabinets and a pencil from his pack. He chewed the pencil and tapped it against the sheet as he pondered what to write.

'Hm, what to put? Should probably apologize first.'

From there, the idea snowballed

Dear Mine

Hey there girl. Sorry it's been a while since my last letter. I forgot about it until Dad reminded me just today, so yes, I know I'm a terrible friend. If you've been sending letters to the base, you probably shouldn't do that anymore. Dad decided that with everything that happened he should probably...retire isn't quite the right word but it's what I'll use. To retire for the time being.

We moved to another prefecture, and you can use the new address on the envelope. Things here aren't going too badly. Nothing of note has really happened here for the most part. I've run into a few unsavory sorts, but one of them actually tried to make peace. Turns out, one of them is my neighbor. I don't think I can consider them a friend, but at the very least they don't hate me.

School is about as boring and the kids are about as obnoxious as you'd expect. Haven't really found a group to be a part of yet, but something good did happen. I'm actually in this poetry contest between a few classes in my grade. I wasn't even expecting to win, but here we are. I'm up against the smartest girl in our grade and she's pretty intimidating. I'll let you know if I win or if anything remotely exciting besides that happens. Which, it probably won't but then again when have we ever been ones to pursue excitement?

I'm glad you found a club to join. Why can't I know just yet? Don't keep me out of the loop. You know I don't like surprises. Whatever it is, it must be good if you find it rewarding. Also, nice work in scaring off Ashitomi. That girl was downright evil. I wish I could've been there to see her run off.

Maybe now that I'm not off on paradise island now, maybe seeing each other for a holiday or the summer won't be so difficult. What do you think? I think I've run out of things to write about for now. Write me again soon and we can discuss details further. Tell your family that I'm doing alright and that the urchins have nothing to worry about.

Until then, as always,

Benji

He sat back and massaged his hand a little. He knew his handwriting wasn't perfect in some spots, but the message was legible.

'I think that's about all I can say for now without making her worry too.'

He slipped it into an envelope.

"Hey Dad", he called down, "Where do we keep the stamps? I finished writing."

Fumihiro's clunky footsteps could be heard ascending the staircase.

"I usually keep them in one of the little cubbies in my desk. Hang on."

Benjiro poked his head into his Dad's room. He couldn't say that it was messy, but 'in disarray' seemed like a more fitting term. He had asked his Dad about why he never organized his desk, but every time he asked his Dad would just respond that he had a system that only he could understand, which sounded lazy but Benjiro just eventually gave up on asking why.