Page 51 of Daydreams & Doughnut Cake

To my surprise, he handed me an envelope.

‘What’s this?’

‘Just read it. Please, Rosie?’

‘What?Why...?’ I stared after him as he turned and walked back to his car.

‘It might help to make things clearer for you,’ was all he said as he ducked down into the car.

He started the engine and drove away, leaving me with an envelope bearing Danny’s name. The handwriting, when I looked at it in the light, was achingly familiar.

It was a letter from Mark.

*****

I closed the front door and retreated to the living room. There wasn’t a sound from upstairs. Amelie must still be fast asleep.

Placing the letter on the arm of the sofa, I sat down and stared at it.

It was Danny’s letter. It would feel weird reading it. But obviously I had to...

So I picked it up and slid the single folded sheet from the envelope. With hands that trembled slightly, I began to read.

Hey, Danny,

I love you, mate. I know we don’t usually do all that mushy stuff, but I wanted you to know how much I’ve enjoyed having you as my best friend all these years.

You’re a top guy and I hope you have a long and happy life. Do it for both of us!

One thing I’ve learned about life – now that there’s precious little of it left for me – is that you need to grab all the opportunities to be happy when they arrive.

I spent far too long dithering over my feelings for Rosie, telling myself I didn’t want to ruin the friendship, when really, I should have been much braver and told her how I felt much sooner. And hey, surprise, surprise, it turned out she’d been feeling exactly the same way!

So what I’m saying is: You can’t afford to shy away from any chance to be happy. These opportunities don’t come along every day so grab them while you can.

Mate, can I ask you a big favour? Will you look after Rosie for me?

I know you’ve always been really fond of her, and sometimes I’ve even thought that if it hadn’t been for me getting in the way, you two would have naturally gravitated together. You’re two of my favourite people in the world and this is probably going to sound weird, but if you were to end up together, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Well, it would be the end of my world, obviously. (Sorry. You know I could never resist a bit of black humour!)

But what I’m trying to say is: Don’t feel obliged to ignore your feelings because of some sort of weird, misguided loyalty to me because that would be a criminal waste of a potentially great future! I want you both to be happy. So there. I’ve said it. I worry so much about having to leave Rosie and Amelie on their own. Knowing they were being looked after by someone like you would make me very happy.

Now, go forth and have a great life, mate.

Maybe one day we’ll meet again for a few pints of Old Peculiar and you can tell me one of your terrible jokes.

Happy days!

Mark

I sat there for a long time, re-reading that precious letter. I could hear Mark’s voice in my head as I read his words over and over. The handwriting was scrawly and I knew he must have written it in desperation, knowing he was soon going to lose the power to communicate in writing. It would have taken such an effort to form so many words but Mark had been determined to write it for the people he loved.

I smiled, thinking of his courage and his determination, picturing him labouring over his task. The letter needed to be written and Mark was damn well going to do it, however hard or painful it was! It was so typical of him to be thinking of Amelie and me and our future, even while his own life was drawing to a close.

At last, I sat back, tears in my eyes. But they were sad tears mixed with happy ones. We were so very lucky to have had Mark in our lives for as long as we did.

For the first time since the day of the funeral almost a year ago, I was feeling at peace with my life as I walked upstairs to bed...

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

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