The following “letter” is part of the continuing series from the unpublished novel by James Garrett, “Benicia Letters Once More”. He does not plan to publish the book but instead is choosing to share the letters with the readers of the Benicia Herald. The letters continue the storyline of Garrett’s first novel “Benicia and Letters of Love”. Each “letter” tells of love in one of its many forms from a separate point of view. Benicia is represented prominently in the letters because of Garrett’s deep fondness for the city of Benicia. He hopes readers see themselves or others they know in the letters because the concept of “Love” is universal.

Dear Mr. Garrett,
She took my guy away. How silly that reads. He wasn’t my guy or she couldn’t have taken him away. Still, that’s how I felt at the time and for awhile after.
That guy and I went together for almost three years in high school. About halfway through our senior year he dumped me. Again, how silly that reads. He saw someone else he thought he liked more and said it was over between us. In lightning-like speed he was going with her.
It hurt for awhile to see those two holding hands around campus as he and I had for those almost three years. Some of my friends avoided one or the other or both of them in support of me as they saw it. Others accepted it as if things had always been that way.
I never confronted either the guy or his new steady. Foolish as it may seem I liked him as a person and had also always liked her. It was just one of those stages in life that a lot of people, I think, go through.
I was asked out a number of times after the guy and I parted. Maybe it sounds like it was on the rebound, but one of my classmates since the seventh grade asked me out the most. He was always that good looking nice guy who seemed to be a little bit in the background. He was active, sociable, and smart but wasn’t the kind of guy to flaunt anything. He was the strong silent type. He was always happy to see me.
When he discovered I was no longer going steady, he was the first to ask me for a date. He was the guy I seemed to discover, but it finally occurred to me he had been there all along. I thought of dances, times in classes, times in the quad, just times. He always seemed to be there. If it was a dance, he usually came with a date. If it was in class, he sat near me or if seats were assigned and he sat at a distance he seemed to often be looking at me when I was looking at him. In the quad he was so many times in the group I was with.
On Grad Night we spent a lot of time together. The next day he came over to my home. When we sat on the deck, he asked me if he could call me his girl. When he finished what he was saying, I told him I would be his girl.
For a few weeks that summer he and I spent a lot of time together. I think we were simply getting to know each other. Before September came he had to go to one college and I had to go to another.
He asked me if the distance and time between us at different colleges would end the connection we had built in a few short months, though the connection had been building for a long time. I told him the connection we built would last if it was supposed to last.
The connection was supposed to last. It took each of us five years to graduate from college. We worked at keeping in touch and spent as much time together as we could.
When the date is set you will receive a wedding invitation.
Anna

James Garrett is a lifelong resident of Benicia and a former teacher at Benicia High School. He is the author of the following novels: “Benicia and Letters of Love,” “The Mansion Stories,” “Chief Salt,” and “One Great Season, 9-0!” He also compiled a three-volume work titled “The Golden Era: Benicia High School Football, The 1948 through 1960 Seasons, “A” History with Comments.”
He can be contacted at jgstoriesnpoetry@aol.com.

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