Free Next to You (Life) by Claudia Y. Burgoa

again, I ask you to keep my secrets between us.
    D
    P. S. Your drawing is framed and on display on one of the bookcases, in my office. Better?
     
    Danny:
    Thank you for the chocolates, extra stationary and the wonderful origami paper. Did you really order it from Japan? I sent you a new work of art, pretty nice lake huh? Though, you don’t need to frame them.
    Where do the Swansons come into play? Your secrets are safe with me. You didn’t need to pay for the center, they just informed me about my account being paid in full when I added a few services—which please, you, mister, don’t need to pay for.
    About me… There are things I keep discovering of myself, unconsciously I buried my entire childhood because of them—Donna mostly. Concealing the good to forget the bad was an awful trade, yet, a move that helped me survive and brought me all the way into adulthood. Things I remember now: Grandma used to say princesses were loved by everyone. Of course, as I craved for my mother to love me, I became obsessed with being one… pretty pitiful. To add some to that fairy tale mentality, she also said that they dressed in pink, a royal color and chocolate cures everything. That explains three of my obsessions. Though I’d like to inform her that though, I love chocolate, it doesn’t cure everything. And that princesses aren’t loved by everyone—I know that for a fact.
    Those memories brought an extra along. Remember my first Christmas with you? First we went to New York, where we had dinner at a fancy hotel on Christmas Eve after ice skating in Rockefeller center. Only the two of us, you rented the rink out for the evening. That was the most magical night. It had been my freshman year of college, you flew me there so we could fly to Europe on Christmas day.
    Our first stop, Switzerland, because you wanted to ski. That was my first experience skiing, well, the first time my butt and the snow began their affair because I always ended up falling. That night we spotted a shooting star and I made a wish. “What did you ask for?” you insisted on knowing, you always do.
    “To someday be a princess.” Because it was an intriguing thing to be and I was in the lands where they existed. With those powers you have to make everything possible, it happened.
    The day after, you gifted me a tiara with pink and white crystals. You gave me a title where it said I was a princess. You then bought an island, which became our kingdom. People think it is crazy that you call me such, but they don’t know the story behind the title, and now it means even more than before. Something tells me, you were in love with me back then, were you? I wonder if illustrated dictionaries will have my picture next to the word obtuse.
    Regarding yourself, what can I say other than, you’re an extraordinary man, Danny. You turned that page and wrote a life worthy of headlines and admiration.
    Hope all is well with you and the world keeps admiring the million ways how Daniel E. Brightmore conquers it.
    Love,
    Becca

Chapter 10
    “ Y ou look all grown up now, son,” Doctor Williams says when I shake his hand, my jaw twitches at the comment. It sounds as if he is an uncle greeting me. I find it unethical for my old therapist to treat me in that way. “It surprised me to see your name, boy. Another trip to Juvie?”
    “That was more than ten years ago.” A lifetime back when I had to defend myself and my brother from our natural predators, I want to add but he had to live that life to understand. The urban jungle hid more dangers than the rain forest. Folding my arms across my chest I argue with myself if it’d be wiser to leave. Damn Rebecca and her mind games that brought unpleasant things back into my life. Foster housing isn’t all that great when you live in a poor neighborhood with greedy men who think you’re their ticket out of the nine to five, Monday to Friday chains. “My lawyer made sure you shredded that file, there’s