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Showing posts from March, 2016

Dear Elizabeth pt. 10

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(Portrait de Madeleine Grey à la rose by Kees Van Dongen) March 17th 2019 Dear Elizabeth, Hello Elizabeth! I haven't heard from you in over twenty years! Crazy how time flies right? How have you been all these years? I heard you moved off to France. Your parents came back to my parent's church. I don't think they hate me anymore. I heard you became a wife, a lovely one at that, and I heard you are a mother. I'm doing well in case you were wondering. I have a beautiful wife named Cindy. She is a school teacher. Her and I just recently came back from an overdue vacation from South America. Her dream was always to help children in third world countries. We loved the children so much we actually adopted one of the children in the orphanage. She is almost two years old. Cindy and I decided to name her Sophie! I know that may be weird, but you and I always loved that name so that only seems right. I am actually an art professor now at the college I went to a long time

Dear Elizabeth pt. 9

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(Maria by Kees Van Dongen) August 20th 2014 Dear Elizabeth, Well this is the final letter Elizabeth. Never heard from you, so I guess you don't want me to meet Sophie. I just hope that she is doing okay. I'm sorry. This letter is the last resort to save my marriage.I think that it is time for me to get out of this fantasy that you and I will be together. It has been fifteen years since I lost you and I just don't think I ever really knew how to accept it. I just hope you and Sophie are doing good in France. I'm sorry. I know I'm not going to send this letter like all the other letters I have wrote to you. I know Sophie doesn't exist. I know that you never married Samuel. I know you never went to France. I know you never went to college. I know the truth Elizabeth. I know that bitter truth. That bitter truth that you took your life the summer before college. You just had so much in your life. You had a good family, full rides to colleges, and me, who

Dear Elizabeth pt. 8

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(Tamara the painter's muse by Kees Van Dongen) May 14th 2013 Dear Elizabeth, I am writing this because I know Sophie is turning two this month. I just want you to know I wanted to wish her a happy birthday. I know you can't tell her, but at least you will know. Cindy and I have been going to marriage counseling for over a year now, and I think things are really looking up. It's kinda funny, because this is the therapist we both had over ten years ago. Cindy was pretty upset when I told her about Sophie. She was enraged at first, but her anger turned to pity towards me. She keeps asking me if I really thought that she was my daughter. I don't think she believes me that I have a daughter. I think she is just in denial, she doesn't want to accept that I have a daughter, but her and I don't. She wants a child really bad. We try to have one, but due to medical reasons, I don't think we will be able to have children. Another reason why I was writing t

Dear Elizabeth pt. 7

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(Dolly by Kees Van Dongen) July 9th 2012 Dear Elizabeth, What is wrong with you. Ever since we slept together in France, I have been trying to avoid seeing anyone that could be related to you. I started avoiding going home so I wouldn't have to see your parents if I went to church. I found out that your parents don't go anymore for quite sometime. Well they just came back and they told me that they have been making frequent trips to see their granddaughter. I know Elizabeth. I know everything. She is over a year old now isn't she? She was born in May. I just find it so funny, that being nine months after you and I had that night in Paris. Why didn't you tell me that we had a child? How could you hide this from me? Samuel doesn't know does he? I am so mad at you right now. You read my letter telling you to come home, and you still stayed in France with my baby. I think the biggest insult to everything is when your parents told me the name of our daughter

Dear Elizabeth pt. 6

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(La Parisienne by Kees Van Dongem) August 18th 2011 Dear Elizabeth, I'm writing this letter to you to let you know that I admitted everything to Cindy. It has been a year since we met in France and I just couldn't continue to live my life hiding these feelings from my wife. I love her and I know that I could not continue to let this happen. So I told my wife about the affair. I think she really loves me with how she responded to me. She was not angry, but worried. She knows how upset I was about the whole situation and for that I think she is okay with the whole situation happening. She understood that I was once deeply in love with you and I guess she knew that, and that it was okay. She asked me if I still loved you more than her. I had to be honest with her Elizabeth. I told her no. I don't love you anymore. I waited for you to write me last year and I still have not received a letter from you. I knew you still wanted to live in France and be with Samuel. I

Dear Elizabeth pt. 5

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(Portrait of a Young Woman by Kees Van Dongen) September 24th 2010 Dear Elizabeth, I know we promised not to communicate after what happen in France, but I feel that I need to write this letter to you. I can't forgive myself of what we did when I came to France. I guess we just had a little to much to drink didn't we? I want you to understand that I did not mean for anything to happen the way it did. My plan was to just go out for some dinner and then I would go back to my hotel and you would go back to your home. Never was it my plan to have you at my hotel that night and then you leaving the next morning before I woke up. Thanks I guess for writing me that little note before you left. No I love you, I had a nice evening, just, "This never happened". I mean, I understand that we are both married and that this was completely wrong, but all I have in the morning is three words. This never happened, this never happened, this never happened. Well Elizabeth, it di

Dear Elizabeth pt. 4

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(kiki de montparnasse by Kees Van Donger) July 17th 2010 Dear Elizabeth, How have you been? I haven't wrote you in a long time. Hope you are enjoying married life. Your parents showed us pictures of your wedding. You looked beautiful in your wedding dress. Samuel is a lucky man! Cindy and I are doing really well. We've been leaving in a nice apartment downtown in  the city, but I think we may be actually buying a house soon. We have been looking around and we found this little house with a picket fence. The typical cliche home that Cindy is obsessed about, but you know, I think it is actually growing on me. Cindy has a good teaching gig in the city. The children are a little rough, but she's a tough one! I don't know if your parents told you, but I actually have a pretty successful career! I am an art consultant in the city now. I go with these multimillionaires and discuss what painting they would want to obtain for their mansions. The paintings they buy a

Dear Elizabeth pt. 3

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(Portrait de Madame by Kees Van Dongen) April 24th 2006 Dear Elizabeth, Let me start by saying congratulations on the big news. I know it has been a while since I wrote you last. I finally graduated from college, but I'm struggling to find a job that I could use my degree. I'm working at my dad's company, which isn't too bad. I moved back home with the folks, but its not so bad, who doesn't like home cook meals right? I've been sitting at this table in the local library of our home town. The one we would go to get away from everyone. Hiding among the empty aisles full of books. I find it funny that we were always in here, but never read a single book in this library. I remember all our little hiding places in this town. We had some pretty big plans didn't we? I remember you wanted to travel the world and live in different countries. Guess you succeeded in that. I remember all the late nights you and I spent together. All through high school we w

Dear Elizabeth pt. 2

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(Gypsy by Kees Van Dongen) December 23rd 2002 Dear Elizabeth, Thank you for responding to my letter! To be completely honest, I really thought you wouldn't even read my letter. I'm sorry, that made you sound like an awful person, which you're not. I'm just glad you are doing well in France! You make that place sound amazing. Maybe when I  graduate, I can score an artist job in France. My parents still give me a hard time sometime for being an art major, because they believe that there is no money in my degree. That is what my calling is though, and my God I'm gonna keep pursuing it. My best painting is the one of you I painted the summer before college. That was the painting that got me accepted into the art program here in the first place. Sorry I made you stand in that pose for hours, but it was worth it right? I think my parents have the painting in the attic, may go look for it next time I'm home. I am glad that you are seeing someone in France.