Third Annual Wild Violet Writing Contest Winners (2005)
Fiction
— Second Place
Heidi
Bolton have currently gone back to university part time to earn her bachelor
of arts in writing while working full time in advertising.
The
Last Message
By Heidi Bolton
Sitting heavily onto the couch, Craig swallowed the bile that was threatening
to rise in his throat. The screen on his mobile read: 1 new message; sender:
Lara.
Lara was Craig's wife. She had been dead a year.
The message
read: Hi Craig, my name is Alyssa. I have been receiving ur messages 4
awhile, and now I think I know why.
Craig shook
his head. This can't be. This number is his late wife's number; he never
deactivated it. He never planned to.
Blinking
back the tears, Craig remembered one of the dying wishes Lara had asked
of him.
"I want
you to keep texting me when I am gone. Just like you did for the year
we were apart and I had Jasmine. We can continue our love through text
like we did then. You can tell me all about Jasmine growing up and not
feel lonely."
Craig had
agreed, and true to his word had been messaging his wife for a year. It
had helped with the loneliness, and in some strange way he felt like she
was there with him.
But now,
he couldn't explain this message from a girl called Alyssa. The last message
he sent to his wife was very personal, and now this. Shaken, Craig looked
down as another message came through on his phone.
It read:
I think we need to meet up.
And Craig agreed.
Early the
next morning Craig was in a café overlooking Bondi Beach. Although
it was Monday, the café was full of people grabbing their coffee
fixes on their way to work. Jasmine sat on the seat next to Craig, her
legs swinging. She wanted to get to the beach. It was a tease to have
it in front of her and not be able to go.
Sipping his
coffee, Craig thought about his late wife again. He still got a pain in
his heart when he thought of her, but thankfully, it was slowly getting
better. After his wife's death, Craig texted her as she requested, but
he had never found her phone in his house. It had always puzzled him.
But a late
message from Alyssa last night had shaken him. "The phone was sent
to me in the post. It said on the note with it that I had won a competition.
I don't enter competitions."
Had his wife
sent this lady her phone? If so, why? Why was his wife tying him to this
unknown woman?
Craig helped
Jasmine sip her apple juice. The whole situation was bizarre, but he had
to meet Alyssa now. He had to know why his wife wanted him to meet her.
He wanted to know what her last message to him was.
The door
to the coffee shop opened and a beautiful, young woman entered. She had
long blonde hair and wide blue eyes. She was petite and looked as nervous
as Craig felt. Looking around, her eyes eventually settled on him. He
felt a flip in his stomach as she made her way over.
"Hi."
She said softly, putting her hand out to him. "I'm Alyssa."
Craig nodded,
"It's nice to meet you."
Alyssa sat
opposite him in the booth and ordered a coffee. She looked down at Jasmine
and a smile lit her entire face. "And you must be Jasmine."
Jasmine clambered
out of the booth and teetered over to Alyssa. It looked like they had
an instant bond. As Craig watched the two of them giggling together, he
felt a pang of sadness. All he wanted for his daughter was to have a mother.
Alyssa looked
up at Craig suddenly, the sadness in her eyes mirroring his.
"I am
sorry if I seemed rude at first." Craig stuttered. "I was…I
was very shocked. The messages were meant for my wife, so you can imagine
my surprise."
Alyssa nodded slowly. "That's fine. I can imagine I shocked you with my sudden message. I am sorry it took so long to tell you that you weren't texting who you thought you were." Alyssa looked down and played with a paper napkin between her fingers. "You see, until that day, I didn't know who you were trying to text. I knew it wasn't me obviously, but I didn't realize it was…her. I didn't say anything because…"
Her face
turned a deep pink as she stammered, "I guess I was lonely."
Looking down at Jasmine, Alyssa continued. "I loved hearing about
your daughter growing up, it made me smile to think of her. I'm sorry."
When she looked up she had big fat tears in her eyes. Craig's heart went out to her.
