by Tammy Smith

Created on: October 19, 2008

5 foot 4 and full of life. His long dirty blond hair hanging in his face, covering up his scatter of pimples. He owned a lot of things, his parents doted on him with love and things. But his favorite thing was his black leather jacket. It was two sizes too big but warm, with leather lining inside to make it even more warm. the pockets had plenty of hand room and a secret pocket inside just under the left armpit. It was there that he found the note, the note he kept and would always keep. I t was a note to him from his parents. It was a plain indication of their love. To the best and brightest light in our lives, to the boy who will become a great man. The love we have for you is superseding anything else to ever be and you always make us proud. He held the note in his hand the first time he read it and thought it just another note . he almost threw it away, he was only twelve who cares about a stupid note? he thought if his mom found out ,she'd get her feelings hurt. He shoved the note back and forgot about it. Ten years later in a broken down apartment on school campus he struggled to make it through law school. I m giving up he said and grabbed his leather jacket and felt for his cigarettes and there was the note. His eyes filled with tears as he reread it in his mind. It was the love to keep him going. Ten years later in the court room of his first big case, a murderer to be sent to the electric chair for a more than heinous crime, he searched his mind for the right words to seal the criminal's fate. The words failed to come. He hung his head and looked at the victim's family with defeat, when his arm brushed against the jacket and the distinctive sound of paper rustling only he heard reminded him of a parents love. He told the jury of a child lost who would never grow up to make his parents proud, whose parents light had been extinguished, never to hear his voice again.see his face or hold him close. The jury came back with a guilty plea. Ten years later, He clutched the note again and listened to the soft breathing of his mom's last breath. as his heart broke. Ten years later He came by in the late evening to check on his Dad, the leather jacket zipped up against the cold, his family tucked away for the night. As the footsteps on the porch sounded hollow, his heart knew that his Dad had died, he reached in the jacket and felt for the note, It was there and he smiled. Ten years later, as a boy tried on a leather jacket hanging in his grandpa's closet he found a note, in the left inside pocket just under the armpit.

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