"Sam, yo, SAM!" Roberto screamed. Sam didn't hear him. His eyes were firmly settled on the small white envelope he held in his hands. Roberto oblivious to his friends present shocked state, slapped his friend on the shoulder, still Sam did nothing.
"man, Are you-" Roberto trailed off seeing the recognizable hand writing on the tattered envelope which no doubt had seen better days. "Oh." Roberto added softly.
They both stood silent on the bust San Francisco sidewalk in front of their warehouse home. Both blue and brown eyes teared up slightly, hard rocks forming in Sam's throat alone.
"I'll leave you two alone." Roberto murmured softly gently prying all the other mail from Sam's hand.
Not trusting his knees to support his weight, Sam stammered down on the edge of the concrete sidewalk. The stamp in the corner was a heart image, with the word love printed in pink letters stretched across it. The stamp mark over the meaningless stamp, bold slanted letters blotched the heart spelling out "Birmingham"
The hand writing was clearly Tabitha Smith's. Sam's dearly departed girlfriend, his love that left him three months ago in the middle of the night. His heavenly blue eyes glazed over. His heart pounded in his chest harder every time he thought about his seven-year girlfriend.
Sam didn't know why Tabitha had left, all he did know was that she had. She had packed her things while he slept, in the same room, and left in her green Jeep. He woke up the next morning completely confused and devastated about her sudden departure.
Sam did search for her, he had combed through every hotel and garage in a hundred mile radius with no luck. The rest of the team seemed equally astonished by Meltdown's sudden disappearance.
No explanation, no letter, like the one he held now, nothing. Just as if she had vanished into thin air, melted away into the bleak void of the mass. Away from everyone she ever knew, away from her own love.
Tapping the letters width against his open palm, Sam contemplated over opening it.
Why should he allow her to explain her leaving in a letter? Why didn't she have the gull to tell him face to face? Why not have Tabitha suffer the same pain, the unknowing, the worrying which drove Sam to near insanity for two straight months?
"No girl, " Sam whispered, clambering to his feet, "This time you leave, you leave for good." Sam through the letter into the near by metal mesh trashcan. He gave one more look over his shoulder, before he walked into the warehouse, leaving the most important letter of his life in a heap of week old trash.
Tabitha Smith sighed and picked up her pen for the fifth time in one afternoon, starting the same letter for the tenth time. Her words were jumbled, Tabitha's hand trembled, as warm tears fell from her sky blue eyes.
Dear Sam,
Please don't be angry with me. ( Tabitha quickly wiped away the two chubby tears that threatened to drop unto her paper ) I wanted to do this. Ever since I gave into your suggestion, I've wanted to do this. I know you would have tried to stop me, which is why I left in the dead of night.
I still love you, your still my love. But I had to see how our baby was. I did have to do a lot of begging, and a lot of hunting to find her. But, my God Sam. If you could have seen are little Zoë Marie.
Oh Sam if you could only see her, she's gorgeous. She's got your eyes and my brown hair, I saw her today playing on some play ground. I picked her out of the crowd, I knew she was ours. Our baby girl. I wanted to run up to her and take her away, my five year old baby.
She's being taken care of though, I saw her 'mommy' a nice looking black hair woman. She looks nice. Zoë seemed to like her.
It stills hurt you know? Like an ice pick that chisels at my heart. Do you really think we had to give her up? Do you really think it would have been so wrong for you and me to quit the team? Sometimes I think you were being greedy. Not letting me keep my beautiful baby. I took a picture of her, the only one I have. It's with this letter. I've done all that I've needed to here in Alabama. I'm coming home.
Love
Tabitha.