‘Don’t even joke about that.’
She laughed and it sounded like hope.
‘I didn’t realize you were such a scaredy cat, Ben.’
Ben. Ben like she knew him. Ben like they were more than just two people passing by each other in the randomness of life.
‘Scaredy cat? No, I just would rather not find body parts in musty old attics.’
‘Where would you rather find body parts?’
‘Ideally, still attached to the person they belong to.’
Another small laugh as she snooped around in a few more boxes. ‘Well, I guess that’s it for holiday stuff. I’ll come back to treasure-hunt another day,’ she said, grabbing the ornament box before he could do it for her. She turned and her hip bumped another box. It toppled to the ground, spilling its contents across the attic floor.
‘Shit.’ She put the ornaments down and crouched to pick up the mess.
Bennett stooped to help her. ‘What are these?’ He picked up one of the envelopes from the floor.
‘Old letters?’ Kira sat on the dusty floor, legs stretched in front of her. She blew her bangs out of her face with a breath and her eyes widened as she turned the paper in her hand over. ‘More old letters!’ She peeled open the envelope and pulled out a yellow piece of paper.
‘Dear Ellen, my heart aches without you,’ she read. ‘Oh, my God, they’re old love letters!’ Her gaze met his, uninhibited excitement written across her face and Bennett knew he was seeing something most people didn’t get to. Were people ever more vulnerable than when they were unapologetically excited about something? He didn’t think so.
‘Cool,’ he said, and she looked at him with an exasperated expression like he wasn’t fully understanding the awesomeness of the situation.
‘It’s very cool.’ She waved the letter between them. ‘It makes me sad that we won’t have anything like this.’
‘We?’
She shook her head, hastily stopping his question. ‘I meant our generation. Like no one will find their grandmother’s old letters anymore.’
‘Unless people are printing out their DM’s.’
Kira rolled her eyes, but her lips tipped up in amusement.
‘Right, unless someone out there is printing out their DM’s, in the future no one will just stumble upon a box of old letters. It makes me kinda sad.’
She went back to reading the letter and he opened the envelope he was holding and scanned the letter.
‘Kira…’
‘Woah…’
Their heads snapped up at the same time. A delicious blush had crept up Kira’s cheeks.
‘They’re dirty letters,’ she said, eyes wide.
Bennett doubled over with laughter, a hand across his stomach, letting the letter fall from his fingertips.
Kira kept reading. ‘This is absolutely filthy,’ she gasped.
Bennett wheezed, sure he was sucking in so much attic dust that he’d be sneezing until New Year’s, but the moment was too absurd not to.
‘At least they’re not your grandmother’s letters,’ he said between laughs.
Kira swatted his shoulder. ‘Don’t you dare bring my grandmother into this.’
Ben wiped the tears from his eyes. ‘You did, not me!’
She frowned, still reading. ‘I mean … it’s still very romantic. He wanted her so bad, he pined for her.’ She picked up another letter. ‘That’s hot.’
Bennett grabbed another letter to avoid staring at Kira while she read.
‘Dear Ellen, I think about you constantly, day and night you haunt my thoughts. Your sweet mouth, the perfect curve of your breasts. The memory of the taste of your pussy keeps me alive, keeps me fighting, day after day…’
‘Wow, Ellen must have been one hell of a woman,’ he muttered, although he could relate to poor Edwin’s feelings.
‘He must have been in Vietnam when he wrote these,’ Kira said, pointing out the dates on the letters.
‘I wonder if she ever wrote the poor guy back.’
‘They got married, so she must have at some point. Maybe they got lost?’ She rifled through the letters looking for any response to Edwin’s ardor. ‘She must have responded. How could she not?’
Kira was on her knees now, examining the other boxes for more letters. ‘She couldn’t have just left him hanging. All his thoughts and feelings just flapping in the breeze. I mean, he loved her. Look at how he loved her. And he must have been so lonely … out there thinking of her…’ Her voice cracked.
‘Kira…’
She kept looking, opening box after box. ‘They must be here somewhere.’
