**opens the letter**

Dear Someone,

You see, this. The thing that you're witnessing now. It has been an integral memory of my growing up. I know you don't realize that right now. I know you'd never realize this. But, I guess today I need to say it out loud, not for you. But for me, cause god knows how much this small incident with you meant to me. 

Listen, I am not the kind of guy who wears his heart on his sleeves, so I hope you read this carefully. 

This letter is a small tribute to you and the memory we shared on that one fateful day and ever since I've met a few people in life who emphasize on expression of your feelings, I felt I had the courage to write about you. I thought I can give it a go. 

So this is how it goes,

It was the end of class and everyone was leaving, but my cousin who was supposed to fetch me was still somewhere heaving.. in the traffic maybe, but you see this is confusing cause our house was nearby and i don't know if he was busy or just weaving his way to my school. 

I was all alone and 10 years old, frightened in the lonely building with the ghosts of teachers and faint echoes of their voices, my heart was beating and tears were just on the brim and forming. I knew soon this dam will overflow and the entire building will experience the blood-curdling scream of a child, missing. 

I guess we all are like that as a kid.  I have many stories of me being left to be picked last after school but this one... this one was different cause this time. I didn't cry

With hopes lost and a heavy heart, I picked up my bag and went to the only place a kid would find solace. The playground.  But before that let me paint a picture so the view is clear, and the story I'm replaying in your mind is just as it does in this kid mind like a broken tape recorder which for the first time is playing a pleasant memories instead of a boss battle with his nighmares.

The ground was small, with two swings nearby, the center was decorated with a merry-go-round which looked more like a torture device designed to throw children who played on them, and a slide on the right.   central area near the merry-hells-round was the area where enthusiastic kids would throw their bag packs and run with their "The Flash" like speed to take their position for slides, and some would claim the swing.

But, the perk of having a lazy cousin I had the entire playground for myself and in the moment of abandonment this playground was my Kingdom and I was the sole ruler. The swing was my throne and slide my aisle to my throne. The merry-hell-round for my subjects, the bullies. 

Unfortunately, I was alone. A superpower I realized I'd have even in adulthood. yes, I am still alone while I'm writing you this. But I'll save the sentiments for later, See you ruined my rhyme. I know this letter was supposed to have prose but I started poetic. 

Anyways, what's done is done. So I'll just get on. 

There I was on my throne, curled up and sad, cause of course being alone as a 10-year-old kid in a building was bad. Especially for the crybaby types like me. But in the moment of sadness, I heard a thump of another bag back and like a king, more like a wimpy kid, I looked at you. Of course, I wasn't the only one there.

The day had blessed me with another presence just older and just as sad. 

For moments we had a bout of silence, the uncomfortable awkwardness crept through my skin in the presence of a stranger and went down my spine, I looked at you and for a moment our eyes meet, But the glare or I don't know if it was the shine. I looked away. Scared like a 10 year old should be. 

But I guess that was the icebreaker without ice being between us. We were just two strangers parked on the seat of the swings looking down at the sand below us. I don't know exactly if you sighed in relief or just let that quiver in your voice fade, but the next moment you were standing behind my swing and started to swing me. 

Afraid that I'd fall I held on to the chains and looked behind but my small frame and chubby fingers were a restraint. If I tried looking back either I'd fall head first or tumble to my merry -hell- round. I hope you remember that moment cause that was rude and reckless and scary and unexpected and ...

just what I needed.

To tell you the truth  I don't remember much of the day but I do have a feeling that I was sad, the bullies were a common norm and as a 10-year-old you got to become Jackie Chan. So I stayed silent and ate all the shit up. The looming sadness was bottled up and If you ask me to know how a 10-year-old can understand the concept of bottling up, I'd say. if you stayed, You'd have known.

Anyways, 

You were the stranger and I was the Kid. The swing took time to take off but my heart already flew, and the sadness in the moment doomed, I can swear that the day was cloud but I saw the sun smiling behind me just as bright. Your smile. 

The girl who a moment before sighed was now smiling bright. 

I wonder why though. 

I guess that's what people say about the kindness of strangers. I guess you were just a passerby and I took that from you. A stranger of happiness. 

I may be talking bullshit right now but bear with me cause this is important. 

There's so much to say and I haven't even scraped the surface. Seriously, who were you? why were you? I question it to this day. but for now I think I'll tag it as " good things always find it's way".

We didn't utter a single word but you did tell me you missed your bus and your parents or maybe cousin I don't know is also on his way. I guess we were similar in that way.

I wanted to meet you again but I never got to see you again, and it's been what now? 10 years?

 I have forgotten your face.

But this memory still stays. 

See I was trying to write a letter with rhyme and it's now nothing more than a broken excuse of prose. 

But I'll keep that aside for now and let you in on one thing.

If I could go back to that day, It'd be a yes in a heartbeat cause that day I learned how two people can make happiness without any words.  Your actions were enough. 

I have regrets, 

I wish I could've asked you your name and hugged you for once cause this kid wanted to melt your heart just as you did for him. I don't get sentimental over such memories but I guess I never regretted not hugging someone in my life more than I do for you. 

I wish your parents didn't come to fetch you earlier than me and I wish you wouldn't have left me alone like everyone else, but I will forever remember you swinging me on the swing and all the butterflies I felt when I was at the top and the feeling of euphoria and tickles as i descended down.

I'd always remember how the sun smiled brightly behind me and how I was soooo SOOOO FUCKING CLOSE to someone I'd call " my didi".

But there you were, a total stranger picking up his bag and waving your final goodbye to me, walking towards your parent taking the bright sun away from me and leaving me sitting alone on the swing again.

I don't think of the moments how i spent after you left cause you gave me soooo much in those 30minutes we had together. Under those rainy clouds and  gloomy weather, You brightened a scared kid's day. 

And I wish in fact you have no clue how much I've hated myself for not remembering your face over the years. 

I think the 10-year-old me still had hopes to meet you again, that's why the next day  I sat on the same swing where you met me and I hoped you'd come back again, but I guess you never missed your bus ever again.

I am still bad at remembering faces but I know if there's one face I wanna see again and forever remember. It is yours. I wish I could find you cause I know I am crazy enough to go leaps and bounds to find you but I don't have the memory to do so and there's only so far I can get with a smile and the voice of a sigh. 

Oh! I forgot to tell you. The swing we met and the entire playground. It's demolished now. Our principal decided to make it a garden with a statue of Jesus there, IN the exact same spot were our memory of the swing used to be. and no offense to god but, I HATE YOU for taking that place from me.

I HATE YOU that our principal decided to remove all the playground equipment for a statue. Now I don't even have a visual of those old memories.

But anyways Miss Stranger/ Someone.  I wanted to thank you. From the deepest part of my heart, thanks for making this memory with me, cause I know it doesn't matter to you but It meant the world to me. 

Thank you again. Really. 

Thank you.

If virtual hugs can reach you I would hug you so tightly I'd never let you go. 

Your (idk.. something?)

Ash.

                                    ** closes the letter**

                                             ENVELOPE

                           .               With regards,

                                          To, Someone

                         Address:  My school's playground.