Love Letters to Write Before I Die

Nathan had a dream that night. It was a recurring dream that plagued him almost every night whenever he stayed at the hospital. It was familiar and held no warmth. It was a bitter memory playing on loop, engraved in his head. And he wanted nothing more than it to go away.

“Mom,” an eight-year-old Nathan said, tugging on her mother’s skirt while wiping away his tears with his sleeve. “Rob Sayles told me that I won’t live for long and that I would die. Is that true, mom? Is it?”

Sophia Scott never answered her son.

He woke up from the dream with a jolt, his clothes drenched in sweat. He closed his eyes tightly, rubbing his temples. It was 5 in the morning when he finally decided to grab the notepad and pen beside his bed before writing a reply to the girl named ‘Haley’. It took him another full hour before he could finally be satisfied with his reply.

‘Dear Haley,

You win. I give up.

Yours sincerely,
Nate.’

He went under the covers and slept again, trying his best not to break down as he buried his face in the pillow. The next morning, the doctors came to say that his pneumonia was rapidly getting better and he should be out in a week or so. He was sure he would be in the same place for a tune-up due in a month or so. Nathan called Alex.

“I can’t get out of here,” he said. “So I need your help.”

“What is it?” Alex said, his words came out slowly and lazily.

Nathan tapped on the paper next to his bed, before giving him the folded up note. Alex sighed. He looked conflicted for a moment as he debated with himself whether or not he should be his cousin’s mailman for the day. In the end, with a grunt, Alex snatched the paper away from between of Nathan’s fingers.

“Just tell me where, exactly, the stupid bench is and I’ll do it.”

When Alex went out, Nathan banged his head against the wall behind him, feeling the pain spreading around his head. It was a stupid thing to do since in the end he had his head on his knees, moaning in pain as he wondered why he banged his head on the wall in the first place.

The door creaked open for the umpteenth time that day and Nathan was ready to scream, “I’m fine!” but then he saw the person standing by the doorway. It wasn’t a doctor or a nurse. It was Dr. Dumont’s slightly quirky daughter.

Haley.

She shared the same name as the girl who wrote him those letters.

Haley stood there, shifting her feet slightly. She looked as if she didn’t know what she was doing in Nathan’s room in the first place.

“Yes?” Nathan said awkwardly.

“I just…” she trailed off, smiling. “Just dropping by to say hi.”

Nathan stared at the girl before him. He could just be bitter. But what the other Haley wrote had made a slight impact on him.

He could just be bitter.

“Then, hi,” he said, giving a polite smile.

Haley’s muscles relaxed.

“Hello,” she replied.