331Sophia could feel the sweat beading along her hairline as she dragged her heavy mahogany chest from the foot of her bed across her bedroom floor. The old wood smelled sweet which brought up memories of childhood escapades where she would hide within this very trunk, folding her tiny body like a contortionist and waiting patiently with bated breath for someone to come and find her. She let go of the trunk with an unladylike grunt and swiped the back of her hand across her forehead ridding it of moisture. Through this whole ordeal of having to pack her worldly possessions for the imminent move to start her new life; away from her mother, the only family she had left.
"Sophie! hurry up and get all your stuff into the back of the truck, you've got a long journey ahead" her mother's muffled voice wafted up through the seemingly empty house.
Sophia hadn't realised until now how much stuff she actually had until the task of packing all her things took over her life for the past two weeks. She sighed heavily and sank down onto the floor beside her trunk and leant her side against its sturdy frame. She could feel the hollow feeling forming in the pit of her stomach, she had tried to convince herself that it was just the excitement of finally moving out on her own to the big exciting city of New York. She would start up her own little bakery business with the money that her grandparents had left her in their will. She would put that degree in business management into good use and show her mother that she could be independent. But as the hollow feeling steadily developed into a hard lump in her throat she could not fool herself any longer and silent tears began streaming down her face. The depressing thought of being all alone in a foreign city where she knew nobody weighed down on her. She could fully admit that she was going to miss her mother terribly, they had made a life together here in a quiet suburb of California for the past twenty one years. She would miss the easy rhythm that she and her mother had perfected over the years, becoming attuned to each other's habits.
The house she was now moving out of held so many fond memories of childhood and her rocky teenage years. She wiped away a tear and chuckled softly as she spied a carving in the dark wood of the chest, it read: Danny + Sophie best friends for life! she remembered that particular day, Danny had blown her off to play soccer with the other neighbourhood boys. She had sulked in her bedroom for most of the day clutching her teddy bear for company. Danny had come by later that day encrusted in mud and sweating much like a pig in the summer. He had barrelled through her door and when he saw her crying, called her an idiot and pulled her into a one armed hug. She had tried to push him away and accused him of not wanting to be her friend any more.
"What are you talking about, of course I'm still your friend Soph!" he smiled and reached again to hug her but she slapped him away.
"Then why did you leave me, to play with those smelly boys down the street, huh? It's 'cause I'm a girl isn't it?" she had also poked him hard in the arm for good measure. She knew how to play soccer and was pretty good at it, even if she did say so herself. She and Danny had played together every so often, and couldn't believe it when he'd ditched her that day.
"No, of course that's not it! it's just that Tommy and Kevin aren't exactly gentle when they play, look!" he hitched up his shorts do display a purplish bruise and several cuts and grazes on his knees, shins and thigh. "I was lucky that I didn't get crippled today!" he said again softly drawing her closer, " I was just trying to protect you from getting hurt. Sorry."
She couldn't help it, she couldn't stay mad at him for long, but she wasn't going to let him off that easy. " I still don't believe you." she held back the grin that was threatening to spill over. Danny could sense it too and chuckled.
"Okay, I'll prove it!" he bounded off the bed and rummaged around on her desk until he found what he was looking for; a compass! He scurried over to the chest and began etching the inscription with the sharp point of the compass, his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.
"There! now it's permanent!" he said with a flourish, "Don't say I never do anything for you."
Sophia remembered feeling thrilled that she had a best friend. She had thought about Danny frequently since his leaving. As promised he had called her from his new house in New York everyday for two years. They would spend hours telling each other about their day, talking about random things. Sophia would always call him on his birthday at twelve o'clock precisely and wish him happy birthday. She had first noticed that his calls were becoming increasingly infrequent over the following months until eventually he had stopped calling altogether. She knew that he was very popular in his new school and had made new friends, from the stories he had told her. Sophie had berated herself for being selfish and reminding herself that he had a life too and she couldn't expect him to call her all the time. She had tried to write him letters occasionally, but when she failed to get a reply she assumed that she had written the address wrong or perhaps didn't put enough stamps on. She finally understood that he had moved on from their childhood friendship when he even stopped calling her on her birthday. She had cried for a long time, her mother tried to soothe her but she was devastated. She had lost her best friend.
But what was strange was that two weeks after her birthday she had received a birthday card in the mail and even more peculiar was that it was signed "Happy Birthday Sophia, From Gray"
She remembered feeling shocked and confused as to why Gray would send her of all people a birthday card. They had barely spoken when he used to live here, she had supposed that he had hated her. She finally assumed that he had felt sorry for her that Danny hadn't responded to any of her correspondence that he sent her the card out of pity, even though, she had saved every single one. For he continued to send her a card every year following. She had felt bad that he would send her a card for every birthday and she had nothing to give in return to say thank you. One day after a particularly hard day at school she decided to whip up a batch of white chocolate, hazelnut and raspberry cookies. She found that baking offered her a temporary respite from the pressures of daily life, the cookies were delicious and in a moment of insanity she packed a couple dozen cookies in a Tupperware container and mailed them express through FedEx with a note saying "Thank you, enjoy these. Sophia" to the return address on the back of the envelopes that Gray had sent her birthday cards in.
Needless to say Gray was confused and surprised when a man with a FedEx uniform showed up at his door one morning brandishing a clipboard demanding a signature and then thrusting a package into his arms and bidding him a good day. He had read the senders address in bemusement, "Sophia sent me a package? I wonder what the hell for." he was standing in the hallway in front of his apartment door, in nothing but a pair of pyjama pants. It was his day off from the fire station, although he never could relax properly knowing that there were people out there probably burning to death in his absence. He scratched his chin which was rough with a decent amount of stubble, wondering what was in the package. He shook it and heard things rattling around inside, curiosity got the better of him and he ripped the wrapping off and discovered a large Tupperware box full of cookies. Sophia Brown sent me cookies? how fricken weird. He saw the note taped to the side of the container, ' Thank you, enjoy these. Sophia.'
He stood there for a minute to figure out what he had done to deserve cookies from an old friend of his brother's and it finally dawned on him that she must have been referring to the birthday cards he'd been sending her. He hadn't known what had possessed him to do it. He saw the growing pile of letters that she had sent Danny; some of them hadn't even been opened. Gray had witnessed his brother slowly becoming more distant and indifferent to his best friend. He had initially felt jealous of their friendship, how they would speak on the phone for hours on end and the stupid smile that always seemed to be plastered on Danny's face afterwards. But that all changed when he started high school, being four years older than his brother, Gray had nearly finished school but he had seen his brother lose touch with his friends and take up general delinquency and debauchery. It was actually Danny that had introduced him to his career as a fire-fighter. One night of drunken antics and makeshift flamethrowers taught Gray his life's ambition and had earned Danny a night in a prison cell. His mother had cried all night about her son; the teenage delinquent. But Gray knew that it was probably angst and teenage rebellion on Danny's part and would soon blow over.
Gray had sat on the couch all night and had read all the letters that Sophia had written Danny out of nosy curiosity, but he had found that reading between the lines of forced joviality, that she missed his brother. Gray knew that Danny had stopped calling her and even failed to send her a birthday card. What a douche! Here is a girl who is crazy about him and he treats her like crap!
He could admit feeling sorry for Sophia and even a tiny bit protective over her. He knew he had no reason to feel that way but she was once a small but annoying part of his life once too. His mother was a hallmark junkie and had a stash of cards for all occasions. He got one out intending on signing it from Danny but changed his mind at the last minute and had put his own name down. He had kicked himself for days after that, agonising whether he should've done it and half expecting her to phone him to ask what the hell he was playing at. But nothing of the sort happened, he was relieved. But now standing there with a box of sumptuous looking cookies he wondered if they were poisoned.
He risked it when his stomach rumbled and took a bite out of the wonderfully moist cookie and almost groaned with pleasure when the intensely buttery baked good melted in his mouth. It was quite possibly the best thing he'd ever tasted.
Sophia had received the container back in the mail along with another birthday card the following year, and thus began their somewhat awkward relationship. She would mail him a batch of a new recipe she had created and he would review the recipe in her next birthday card.
Sophia was still sitting slumped against the chest when her mother found her some time later and scooped her up in an embrace. "Oh sweetie, what am I going to do now that you're leaving me? promise you'll call me every day?" her mother kissed the top of her head and sighed trying to keep the tears at bay.
"Of course mom! You know I will. I love you." she squeezed her mother tightly and got up.
"I love you too, darling. C'mon I'll help you with this thing." they both seized either end of the chest and proceeded to hauling it into the back of the removals truck.
when finally all her things were safely packed up, Sophia gave her mother a final kiss goodbye and got into her car to follow the truck to her new apartment in New York city.