Chapter Text
Evan writes his first letter to Eddie when he is six. The program is a new one that the school district is trying, pairing up first graders from different states to be pen pals as a way to encourage friendship (and better penmanship). They’ll write up letters, with the help of their teacher and send them off to a school in Texas, where their penpals will get them and write back.
Evan writes the letter in crayon, blue, his favorite color.
Hi my name is Evan, I live in Hershey like the chocolate its really cool here if you go by the park it smells like chocolate!
I have a big sister and shes really cool, but shes alot older than me so she doesn’t like to play with me that much anymore.
My teacher says you live in Texas, do you ride horses to school? Do you wear cowboy hats every day? My dad doesnt watch TV alot but he does like old cowboy shows and they look so cool I want to be a cowboy!
-Evan
He draws his best horse in the corner of the page, decorating the empty spots with doodles and pouts when his teacher tells him they can not put a chocolate bar in the envelope.
It takes a month for him to get a response, but when he does, he’s ecstatic.
Hi Evan my name is Edmundo
We dont ride horses to school, we take the bus, but we do get to see them every day. There a big white one I really like because it runs next to the bus when we go past. I dont have a cowboy hat but my abuelo has one that he lets me wear when we play sometimes.
I have two big sisters, but they only like girl stuff so I play with my cousins when my tia brings them over. I wanna live somewhere that smells like chocolate that sounds so cool
-Edmundo
He’s drawn his own horse in the corner, and Evan looks at it in awe because it’s much better than his had been.
Evan takes the letter home that night and shows his mom, who told him it was very nice without looking at him.
So instead he shows Maddie, and even at six thinks that this is how his mom should have reacted. She smiles and teases him about making a new friend, and digs an old shoebox out of her closet. Together, they decorate it, with stickers and more drawings, and she promises that this box will keep his letter safe.
They write back and forth for the rest of the year. Evan asks lots of questions, already thirsty for knowledge, and Eddie answers the ones he can, and he never says that he asks too many as his father does. Eddie asks, after so many letters, if it's okay if he calls Evan his best friend because that's a very big thing to be as a kid. Evan’s heart swells.
The program is only supposed to last for the year, and Evan’s immensely sad when they gather around to get the last letters. The one he had sent a couple weeks before had been long winded, and maybe had one spot tear marked when from when he thought about possibly losing his friend.
This letter is just as long as his had been, and Evan feels teary more than once reading it.
On the last page, scribbled neatly at the bottom in a handwriting Evan doesn’t recognize, is an address, one that Edmundo says he hopes Evan will write to over the summer.
Maddie helps him write the first letter once school lets out. She tells him that this will be their secret, does not explain why, and doesn’t have to. She sneaks away to buy stamps for him and promises to check the mailbox every day before their parents do.
Edmundo will be a secret he carries with him for a long time.