The Christmas Card.
Hannah stared at the envelope on her doormat for a few seconds in confusion. Hardly anyone ever wrote her cards or letters, in fact most of the post she got was junk mail or flyers for the
local takeaways, and the handwriting on the front of the card was one that she didn’t recognise. She left it there while she took off her shoes and coat and put them away before she picked the envelope up off the mat and taking it through to the living room, dropping it on the sofa. She walked through to kitchen, turning the kettle on to make herself a cup of tea, catching up on her social media whilst the kettle boiled.
Walking back through to the living room she placed her freshly brewed cup of tea on the coffee table before curling up on the sofa and picking up the envelope next to her. She turned it over in her hands a few times before finally opening it up and pulling out the contents inside. Inside was a Christmas card, one of those nice fancy ones like you see in boutique card places and on the front was a picture of a stag in the snow. She was confused as to who would be sending her a Christmas card, most of the people she knew had already exchanged cards with her already, and those who would normally send them usually sent them to her Mum’s house anyway.
She opened the card up quickly, now even more confused than she had been when she first saw the card on the doorstep. Inside was a letter, carefully written on the inside front page of the card. She read it through once, and then once again slowly, trying to commit the words to memory.
Dear Hannah,
I don’t know if you remember me at all, but it’s Jamie Young, we were friends in secondary school. I hope you don’t mind me writing to you, I got your address from a friend of a friend. I just wanted to reach out to you and see how you were.
I hope you’re doing well, I saw that you got your degree, congrats on that. What are you doing now? How’s life treating you? Do you have partner? Any kids? Are you still drawing comics? You were really good at those in high school.
Anyway, I hope I get to hear from you soon. If you ever want to catch up I’ve left my phone number and address on a little card inside the envelope.
Jamie.
Hannah sat back on her sofa a little bit shocked. Jamie had not just been her friend in secondary school, she’d been one of her best friends. However, they’d slowly drifted apart after they’d left school, both travelling along different paths in life. She thought about the girl she was once best friends with, all blonde hair, bright smiles, and infectious laughter.
Before she could sit and overthink about what she was about to do, she pulled the second piece of paper out of the envelope and typed the number into her phone. She then wrote out a message and hit send. It simply read “Hey Jamie, it’s Hannah. I got your card, thank you so much. How are you doing? It would be great to catch up.”
A Place of Mine 