Theo's life continued to grow beyond the years he had spent beside Jack.<\/p>\n
That was how it should have been.<\/p>\n
He attended classes, made new friends, and began thinking about what he wanted to do after college.<\/p>\n
Daniel and I heard about those things gradually.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Theo told us during dinner.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he mentioned them in a quick phone call.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he arrived at the house with a story he clearly couldn't wait to share.<\/p>\n
I liked those visits.<\/p>\n
They reminded me that the boy who had once sat beside Jack's bed was still becoming someone new.<\/p>\n
One afternoon, he came over and told us he had been thinking about his future.<\/p>\n
He had several ideas.<\/p>\n
He wasn't certain which direction he would take, and he seemed uncomfortable admitting that he didn't have everything figured out.<\/p>\n
I listened as he explained his thoughts.<\/p>\n
Then I asked him what he wanted most.<\/p>\n
He considered the question.<\/p>\n
"I want to make my own decisions without worrying so much about whether everyone agrees."<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
"That sounds like a reasonable place to start."<\/p>\n
He laughed.<\/p>\n
Then his expression became more serious.<\/p>\n
"Sometimes I still think about Jack when I make plans."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
"I wonder what he would say if he knew what I was doing."<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
Jack had been part of Theo's life for so long that it was natural for him to imagine his friend's reaction.<\/p>\n
They had grown up together.<\/p>\n
They had shared ordinary days, difficult moments, and years of memories that belonged to no one else in quite the same way.<\/p>\n
Losing Jack had changed Theo's future, too.<\/p>\n
He had not only lost someone he loved.<\/p>\n
He had lost the person he might have called when something wonderful happened.<\/p>\n
The person who would have argued with him about his choices.<\/p>\n
The person who would have remembered the same childhood stories.<\/p>\n
The person who would have been there to see what happened next.<\/p>\n
I reached across the table.<\/p>\n
"You don't have to stop thinking about him."<\/p>\n
Theo looked at me.<\/p>\n
"But you don't have to ask his permission to live your life, either."<\/p>\n
He smiled faintly.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
I wasn't sure he did.<\/p>\n
I hadn't always known it myself.<\/p>\n
For a long time, I had felt guilty whenever I enjoyed something Jack would have loved.<\/p>\n
A good meal.<\/p>\n
A funny film.<\/p>\n
An ordinary afternoon when nothing terrible happened.<\/p>\n
I would catch myself smiling and then remember that my son wasn't there.<\/p>\n
The happiness would become painful.<\/p>\n
It had taken me time to understand that missing Jack didn't mean I had to refuse every good thing that came afterward.<\/p>\n
I could enjoy something and wish he were there.<\/p>\n
I could make plans and still remember the future he had lost.<\/p>\n
I could laugh at a joke and still cry when I thought about him later.<\/p>\n
Those feelings didn't cancel one another.<\/p>\n
I told Theo that.<\/p>\n
He listened quietly.<\/p>\n
Then he nodded.<\/p>\n
"I think Jack would tell me to stop overthinking it."<\/p>\n
I laughed.<\/p>\n
"He would probably tell both of us."<\/p>\n
That became one of our favorite things to say when we found ourselves worrying about something we couldn't control.<\/p>\n
It was a small joke.<\/p>\n
Nothing compared with the promises and stories that had brought us together after Jack's death.<\/p>\n
But it sounded like him.<\/p>\n
And sometimes that was enough.<\/p>\n
As Theo grew older, I began noticing how much of his friendship with Jack remained in the way he treated people.<\/p>\n
He listened when someone needed to talk.<\/p>\n
He knew how to make a difficult moment less frightening without pretending it wasn't difficult.<\/p>\n
He could laugh at himself.<\/p>\n
And he was willing to admit when he had been wrong.<\/p>\n
I didn't think those qualities belonged to Jack alone.<\/p>\n
Theo had his own character.<\/p>\n
But their years together had mattered.<\/p>\n
They had helped shape each other.<\/p>\n
That was what friendship did.<\/p>\n
It left traces.<\/p>\n
One evening, Theo mentioned the funeral again.<\/p>\n
He had been telling us about a conversation with someone who had heard the story of the red dress.<\/p>\n
The person had asked whether he regretted wearing it.<\/p>\n
Theo said he had thought about the question for a while.<\/p>\n
Then he had answered honestly.<\/p>\n
He didn't regret keeping his promise.<\/p>\n
He regretted that people had misunderstood him before he could explain.<\/p>\n
I felt that familiar sting of shame.<\/p>\n
I had been one of those people.<\/p>\n
Theo noticed my expression.<\/p>\n
"Mrs. Harris, I wasn't talking about you."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
"I mean it."<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
He had forgiven me long before I had forgiven myself.<\/p>\n
That was the difference.<\/p>\n
I was still revisiting the moment when I had judged him.<\/p>\n
He had already moved beyond it.<\/p>\n
I wondered whether I was making the same mistake again by insisting on carrying guilt he had never asked me to carry.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I was.<\/p>\n
I took a breath.<\/p>\n
"I'm glad you came that day."<\/p>\n
Theo smiled.<\/p>\n
"Me too."<\/p>\n
We sat quietly for a moment.<\/p>\n
Then he glanced toward the living room.<\/p>\n
"Do you still have that picture of us covered in mud?"<\/p>\n
I laughed.<\/p>\n
"Of course."<\/p>\n
"Can I see it?"<\/p>\n
I went to get it.<\/p>\n
When I returned, he held the frame in both hands.<\/p>\n
He studied the two boys in the photograph.<\/p>\n
"I remember that day."<\/p>\n
"So do I."<\/p>\n
"Jack blamed me for getting mud on his shirt."<\/p>\n
"Jack blamed everyone for everything."<\/p>\n
Theo laughed.<\/p>\n
"True."<\/p>\n
He put the photograph back on the table.<\/p>\n
For a moment, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
Then Theo looked at me.<\/p>\n
"I'm glad you kept it."<\/p>\n
"So am I."<\/p>\n
He didn't need to say anything else.<\/p>\n
The photograph had survived the years.<\/p>\n
The boys in it had grown up, although only one of them had been given the chance to become a man.<\/p>\n
But the picture still showed the beginning of something that had mattered.<\/p>\n
Their friendship had not been erased by Jack's death.<\/p>\n
It had changed shape.<\/p>\n
It lived in Theo's memories.<\/p>\n
It lived in the stories we shared.<\/p>\n
It lived in the small ways we tried to treat one another better because we had learned how much could be hidden beneath an unexpected action.<\/p>\n
I placed the photograph back on the shelf.<\/p>\n
Theo stayed for dinner that evening.<\/p>\n
Before he left, Daniel reminded him to call us if he needed anything.<\/p>\n
Theo smiled.<\/p>\n
"I will."<\/p>\n
I believed him.<\/p>\n
And for the first time, I didn't feel as though I was watching Jack's best friend walk away from us.<\/p>\n
I felt as though I was watching someone we loved continue into the future.<\/p>\n
That was what I wanted for him.<\/p>\n
Not to forget Jack.<\/p>\n
Not to stop missing him.<\/p>\n
Just to keep living.<\/p>\n
Source: kaylestore.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Theo's life continued to grow beyond the years he had spent beside Jack. That was how it should have been. He attended classes, made new friends, and began thinking about … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10320,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10308\/revisions\/10320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 11: The Last Line of Jack’s Note Explained Why He Had Trusted Me to Understand, Even Though I Had Failed Him at First<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"