When Did Your Heart Go Missing?

My eyebrows furrowed at the soft looking fabric inside. I reached for it, unfolding it in the process. Checkered, red and white. I stood up, not bothering to look at the rest of the basket's contents, and laid it out on the grass. A blanket. Okay. This is supposed to be a memory?

Wait a second...

"I'd run to your house with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches my mom made. And you'd come out with me with two bottles of orange juice. And we'd put it all in a picnic basket, along with a blanket, and come and eat it here. Every other day. All summer."

I looked into the basket and fell to my knees beside it, reaching inside and bringing out...a peanut butter and jelly sandwich wrapped in plastic. I smiled as I pulled out a plastic bottle containing an orange substance. I laid it all out on the blanket, helplessly feeling my stomach churn from the lack of decent food and the thoughtfulness of my best friend.

There were still two things in the basket.

One was another paper. Or at least that's what I thought it was until I actually grabbed it. It was a picture, turned upside down conveniently so that I couldn't see it. Yet. I turned it around and helplessly laughed. A boy in a Super Man outfit held a piece of paper gently in his small hands. The boy had short black hair, a pale complexion, and a dumbfounded expression. The paper read "Birthday Boy!" in a handwriting that looked strangely like Linda Iero's. Beside the boy was a girl, smiling in a little pink ballerina's outfit and wearing a plastic silver crown on her head, decorated with feathers and sparkles and glitter to shine along with her outfit. She held a wand in her hand as her arms clung around the boy's waist. Maybe defensively. Maybe encouragingly. Maybe lovingly. She was probably too young to really know what it meant. Grass and trees surrounded the small children.

It was us. Frank and me. On Halloween. Years ago. In the park that we'd so many times gone into as ignorant six-year-olds with nothing better to do then spend time together, smiling and sharing lunch.

Everything was so much easier back then.

The other thing was much, much smaller. It reflected the sun's glare. It had a piece of paper attached to the bottom of it. I took it out and my grin only widened.

A milk chocolate...Hershey's kiss.

A memory...and a kiss.

I tore the paper off of the candy's wrapper. More of Frank's handwriting, smaller than before, was scribbled on it.

You gave me a kiss when we were only six. Not my first kiss, but...one of my favorites to date. Because it was from you. It tasted great, I can tell you that.

I smiled helplessly. It was amazing that Frank could make me feel so hopelessly happy just by writing somethings and putting a few things in a basket. It was so thoughtful. So sweet. I wanted him to be here with me so that we could share the memory together. I wanted him to know how much I loved this, this...trip down memory lane. I wanted him to know how caring he was and how great it was that he thought about me enough to make such a smart and elaborate...package, I suppose. Gift.

I could imagine us, little kids, Trick-or-Treating on his birthday, laughing at the stupid things little kids laughed about and being carefree enough to just get caught in the sprinklers.

I folded the notes back up and tucked them in my pocket. I sat beside the sandwich and the bottle of juice, dropping the little piece of aluminum-foil covered chocolate on the blanket. I stared at the picture of us. Best friends forever is right. I held the picture close to my chest, wishing to go back to a day when everything was so much simpler and nothing mattered. Hoping that maybe if I held the picture tight enough and long enough, it would happen. Just to go back to when the only thing that mattered was having fun with your best friend. When we were so ignorant to think that maybe we were even immortal. That we could live forever. That we could love forever. Nothing could happen to us. We were free as birds, if not freer. We didn't care about boyfriends and girlfriends and grades and love and daddy leaving me and mommy hitting me...

I allowed a lone tear burn me as it ran down my cheek.