Dear Emma

Dear Emma,

I found this old photo of us today, the three of us. It was that summer when we all went up to that waterfall and Natey fell and he looked like he peed his pants. It was just us in a group, sun kissed and covered in mud, smiling merrily like nothing could ever go wrong.

Do you remember that, Emma?

We all still really miss you here. Do you miss us, too? I miss your smile, your confidence. You were braver than me and Nate, for sure. You were crazy, beautiful, intelligent. I think you held us all together. After all, you were the one who made us all friends in the first place.

What’s it like up in heaven, Emma? I’m almost certain that’s where you are, although I have spent many restless nights hoping that it’s where you are not.

It’s been five years. Five years from today. They haven’t found you yet, but someday they will. Someday, we will finally get to grieve, to remember. Someday, we will have your funeral, and everybody in town will be there, with a million pink roses, your favourite, because that’s how much they all loved you.
We all love you.

So much has happened since you left. We’ve all gotten bigger, done so many things you will never get to do. I finish high school at the end of this year. You didn’t even make it out of primary school. Dreams have been achieved, while you don’t even get to think about reaching yours. No self-respecting person should do to anyone what’s been done to you. But you don’t get a say, because you’re dead. But that won’t stop me from wishing the opposite.

I will never forget you.

Love you to the moon and back,
Audrey