A letter for my grandparents

Mum... said Nicolás. Yes darling?, I answered.

Mum, with which voice do my letters arrive to my grandparents?

Inmediately, I understood your idea, but for that custom that adults have about children's questions, I asked for repetition, justo for a breath of fresh air.

He said slowly; Which voice do my grandparents hear when they read my letter?

And I, that was vey happy that day and almost I didn't think of my parents in Argentina, felt tears come quickly to my eyes and something in my throat.

I aswered securely – With your voice Nicolás. Your grandparents, when they read your letters, dictated by you, written by Mum; they hear your voice and also they can hear yor laugh too... and sometimes, when the evenings are very quiet they hear you calling them, and poor grandparents, move their head, looking for you everywhere and afraid that somebody would laugh at them, grandma ges back to her knitting, and grandpa back to his garden. Sentimental grandparents that with your letters they feel your hands around their necks and when no one sees them, they kiss the air just the same as your cheeks... and when they listen to your crying 11000km. away, their pain increases because they cannot lift you up, to spoil you and to punish who produces your tears...–

and Nicolás with a big smile on his face, said – Ah, I thought so... because when they write to me and your read their letter for me, I hear my grandparents voices, smell grandma's perfume and see a happy grandpa–

Both of us laughing, changed the melancholy to happiness.

–... but Nicolás, you don't believe that every letter arrives with the voice in which one writes... just the ones that enclose such big love as yours, that when they are read, your love escapes from the lines, enters the ears, makes images and refreshes your soul...–

Only you three can make two continents move closer, just by a letter.


Year 1990