A short story: 'Postcards'

By Pat Howard
Cardinal Staff

[The following story is fiction and characters are not based on real-life people.]

“God gave us a memory so that we might have roses in December.” -James Matthew Barrie

Every time Eric Crewe was asked the question, “Why didn’t you stick with running in college?” he responded, “I guess my heart isn’t in the sport anymore.” He developed quite a talent in saying nine words without even consulting the part of his brain concerned with speech.
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Last autumn, Eric and his four friends, commonly referred to as Crewe’s Crew, took the state title for Cross Country as seniors. To Eric, there was no greater achievement that could be reached in running and more importantly, friendship. Senior year could not have been more perfect for Eric and his friends. They had all the fun they possibly could have, and still managed to keep up decent grades. Graduation quickly came and passed, as did the summer. Crewe’s Crew was about to split up for the first time since the clan was established their freshman year of high school.

There have been numerous people to ask that question, but Eric gave a broad response for a reason. He knew that no new situation could give him the feeling he had running with his very best of friends. Eric went to school in a different state and left his life behind, and that could never change. As much as he tried adapting to a new environment and meeting new people, he was happier at home. For this reason, Eric brought the scrapbook his mother made him for his eighteenth birthday to school. The book was chalk full of pictures and memories. Eric thanked God for his memory the day before he left for college. He figured he would not be able to get through his first semester without it.

Three weeks into his first semester of college, Eric was caught in a crossroads. He was trying to keep in touch with his friends from home while trying to build relationships with people at school. It’s not like Eric is the only one with this problem, still he wonders, “Is it possible to still be friends with the people that meant a lot to you in years past, and still build new relationships in a completely new setting?"

At first, the answer was rather clear and positive. He had made a new group of friends and he had a rather unique way of keeping in touch with his friends from home. Every week he would stop in the bookstore and pick up four postcards, write a quick message and send them out to his buddies. Sometimes Eric ran out of room so he continued on the one for next week. One time the cashier asked, “Why don’t you just write letters to your friends?” he said, “Then I’d have to pay for envelopes and you guys have a great deal on these postcards: Buy three, get one free. It’s perfect for me. Plus, this is more of Crewe’s Crew style anyway.”

So it continued that Eric would spend some quality time with some of his new pals, and every once in awhile, he heard back from Crewe’s Crew in letters or postcards of their own. He found the balance he’s been searching for and the answer to the question he often pondered, “Yes. I can still build new relationships and keep my old ones, even though I’m so far from home.”

Eric went from feeling lost and scared in college to content with his first year. He considered joining the track team to get himself out there and do what he loved. Canson University would have been blessed to have utilized his talent for cross country, but he was so far from motivated at the beginning of the semester. His melancholy mood was beginning to subside and the indoor track season was a week from starting practice.

Eric packed up a bag and made his way to the first practice. He figured he would surprise a lot of people, so he kept his mouth shut the entire week. His new coach and teammates were more than happy to see him at the track and he did pretty well for not being in the best shape. Still, amongst all the positive things that were happening around him, Eric was starting to feel the characteristics of the very emptiness he feared so much.

It was about a quarter past seven in the evening when he got back to his room. He put his bag down and just stood in the middle of his room for a moment, and he felt undeniably alone. His friends from home were not keeping in touch with him as much as he wanted, he found it hard to build a truly meaningful friendship with people he wasn’t going to see again in four years, and he was full of doubt in the time he was starting to feel so idealistic. He couldn’t explain it. All he knew was he was collapsed into tears and what seemed to be an unending sadness.

Eric turned to a comfort he planned on in times like these: his scrapbook, his memories. Each page told a different chapter of the one happy story that is the life of Eric Crewe: a birth, a first holy communion,birthday parties, friends and a loving family. His sad tears turned to joyful ones and as he was flipping through the pages, he started to laugh.

Then he came across a picture he was surprised to see: Eric was standing with his arm around the girl next door, Ali, in front of her garage at the age of eleven. They spent their entire childhood living next door to one another and they used to hang out all the time. After the eighth grade, Eric moved to a new town and became immediately involved with his new friends. Ali felt left behind and you can say she felt the same hurt that he did just moments earlier.

It took Eric this long to realize what happened with his former best friend, and he wasn’t happy with the way he handled his relationship with Ali. The next day, he went to the bookstore and decided to pay the full price for a box of envelopes and stamps. He wrote a letter and sent it to Ali’s home address, hoping her parents would direct it to her. Along with the letter, he placed a note she wrote him on the back of a McDonald’s receipt. It read, “Eric & Ali bffls!” (best friends for life, son!).

It was not long before Ali returned his letter. In summary, she said that she was so happy to hear back from him and they needed to get together to catch up. The two got the chance to meet when they were both home for the summer, and it was just like old times. If this whole experience taught him anything, it’s that in a world full of failing marriages and lost friendships, maybe the answers to our problems have been right in front of us the whole time. Hold on to the people that understand you and won’t judge you, the people that love you for who you are. We will always be growing and changing in new directions, but if you ever need to remember who you are, or who cares about you the most, search your memory.