.the letter that never came.

I found an old love letter. My love letter. It seems that mom had hid it away from me all these years. She kept it safely amongst her important mails and bills. The letter was dated on January 1999.

Eight years. She had managed to keep it out of my sight for a good eight years.

‘To my dear Fio’ was all that written on the white envelope. I knew quickly who it was from. There’s only one person who calls me by the name.

Iwan.

My heart skipped a bit.

Ikhwanuddin, or iwan, is an old comrade of mine back during my high school years. I was sixteen when I first got to knew him and he is a year older. Witty, intelligent and cynical is all that I may perhaps, describe about this lad. I could say that he is one of my earliest guy friend (I studied in an all girls school, mind you) and was one of the closest. Our friendship grew through regular phone calls and emails as he was studying in St John Institute, KL and I in Muar. What bind us were our interests in football and sarcasm. We both think we were so damn cool just because we didnt read Ahadiat Akashah's romance novels like any other kids our age. Yep, we were pathetic alright.

There is another thing that I can clearly recall about Iwan; he hates writing, let alone writing letters.

And the letter was handwritten. I was really touched! Okay, it didn’t quite look like a romantic love letter but iwan really showed an effort! He sketched some cartoon on the back of the envelope, wrote on pink papers (he knew I love pink papers) and he even carefully cut out a picture of Siti Nurhaliza and Paolo Maldini (ooh and he knew I love Maldini), paste it on the paper and wrote some funny dialogues! He described the letter as 'tragic and sangat tak creative!' but hey its the thoughts that counts aite? Together with the letter was a beautiful greeting card. Its quite a shot, i must say, for a geeky nerdy boy whose world revolves around scoring straight As, football, calculus and computer games. Innit he wrote mostly about his football scholarship and daily routines at home but it also looked as if he tried to disclose his feelings. Awwww.

Our friendship was based on honesty and sincerity. I cannot remember if he ever try to hit it on me unlike most boys i've known back then. He wasn't the typical lad...you know...the girls+boys=we must date kinda typical.

We had not keep in touch for nearly 6 years now. I remembered him every now and then but i am totally clueless as where to find him. I have lost his mailing address, his email doesnt work anymore and i'd lost all his contact numbers too. I tried to search around but to no avail. The last phone call he made was to tell me he landed on a private scholarship doing something on financing but he never mentioned about the letter.

As to why my mom had hid it, well...its pretty obvious. No mommy wants her daughter to be carried away in the lovey-dovey world, kan?

I just hope he is doing well, wherever he is right now :)