"Like all bottles left to the whim of the oceans, its course is unpredictable."
Remarkable Lines from the Book
*PROLOGUE*
"Like all messages, it was fragile and would break if dropped in a few feet from the ground. But when sealed properly and sent to sea. . . , it became one of the most seaworthy objects known to man. It could float safely through hurricanes or tropical storms; it could bob atop the most dangerous riptides. It was, in a way, the ideal home for the message it carries inside, a message that had been sent to fulfill a promise."
"Winds and currents play large roles in a bottle's direction; storms and debris may shift its course as well."
*STORY PROPER*
". . .there would come a day when the words would be impossible to read." - Theresa Osborne
"Every mother needs a break sometime." - Theresa
"Take life one day at a time." - Theresa's Mom
". . .a mother's love, probably the deepest, most holy love there is." - Theresa
"Sex was too important , too special, to be shared with just anyone." - Theresa
Others: Do you know her?
Garrett: Better than my own heart.
She found herself wondering about the man who wrote it - Garrett- if that was his real name. . .Would he be caring in person as the letter seemed to imply?
"Sometimes men can be real jerks. . .But they aren't all like that. There are lots of men out there - men who could fall in love with you at the drop of the hat." - Deanna
"It's human nature. Once burned, twice shy." - Deanna
"I'me sure if the right man comes along, I'll knew it. I have faith." - Theresa
"Everyone knows a little bit about what they want. Start with the obvious, or if you can't do that, start with what you don't want." - Deanna
"I guess I'd go with the standard cliches - handsome, kind, intelligent, charming - you know all those good things that women want in a man." - Theresa
"I know good story when I see one. Nowadays people are so busy that romance seems to be slowly dying out." - Deanna
"I am lost without you. I am a soulless drifter without a house, a solitary bird in a flight to nowhere." - Garrett
"We were destined to be together." - Garrett
"I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless him, and I find myself wondering why - out of all the people in the world I could ever have loved - I had to fall in love with someone who was taken away from me." - Garrett
"As a girl, she had come to believe the ideal man - the prince or the knight of her childhood stories. In the real world, however, men like that simply didn't exist. Real people had real agendas, real demands, real expectations about how other people should behave."
"If you discovered something that made you tighten inside, you had better try to learn more about it." - Theresa
"Without you in my arms I feel an emptiness in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face - I know it is an impossibility, but I cannot help myself." - Garrett
"You - and you alone - have always been the thing I wanted, and now that you're gone, I have no desire to find another." - Garrett
"Late, but not too late." - Theresa
"Sometimes you've got to take a chance." - Deanna
"Till death do us part, we whispered in the church, and I've come to believe that the words will ring true until the day finally comes when I, too, am taken from this world." - Garrett
"It was the first time I ever loved someone and I knew that if I gave you enough time, you'd come back to me." - Catherine
"Life doesn't often turn out the way we think it will, does it?" - Garrett
“If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been.”- Deanna
"I am a mother, and that makes me something of an expert in life." - Theresa
"It's impossible to protect your kids against disappointment in life." - Garrett
"No one's life is easy, yours is included. - Garrett
"Your feeling say a lot about you, Garrett. You're the kind of person who loves forever. That's nothing to be ashamed of." - Theresa
"Someday you'll find someone special again. People who've been in love usually do. It's their nature." - Theresa
Theresa: How come you always know exactly what to say to make me feel good?
Garrett: Maybe it's because you bring out the best in me.
"Writing always made him think more clearly."
". . .it didn't matter how we met. The only thing that mattered was how we get along." - Theresa
"You're a man who love deeply, but you're also a man who love forever. No matter how much you love me, I don't think it's in you to ever forget Catherine, and I can't live my life wondering whether I measure up to her." - Theresa
"Sometimes love isn't enough." - Theresa
. . .below are the letters - first: the letter to Catherine which was seen by Theresa, and second: the letter for Theresa, herself - which both amazed me in a way, at present, nobody can and which the later had my heart weeping and my soul torn apart.
September 25, 1995
Dear Catherine,
A
month has passed since I’ve written, but so slowly. Life passes by now like the
scenery outside a car window. I do not know where I am going or when I will get
there.
Even
the pain does not take the pain away. I may be diving for my own pleasure or
showing others how to do so, but when I return to the shop, it seems empty
without you. I stock and order as I
always did, but even now I sometime glance over my shoulder without thinking
and call for you.
Without you in my arms I feel an emptiness
in my soul. I find myself searching the crowds for your face – I know it is an
impossibility, but I cannot help myself. You and I had talked about what
would happen if were forced apart by circumstance, but I cannot I cannot keep
the promise I made to you that night. I am sorry, my darling, but there will
never be another to replace you. You – and you alone – have always been the
only thing I wanted, and now that you are gone, I have no desire to find
another. Till death do us part, we whispered in the church, and I’ve come to believe that the words will
ring true until the day finally comes when I, too, am taken from this world.
Garrett
Dear Theresa,
Can
you forgive me?
In
the world that I seldom understand, there
are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust
with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the
winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible
to ignore. You, my darling, are the wind that I did not anticipate, the wind
that has gusted more strongly than I ever imagined possible. YOU ARE MY
DESTINY.
I was
wrong, so wrong to ignore that was obvious, and I beg your forgiveness. Like a
cautious traveler, I tried to protect myself from the wind and lost my soul
instead. I was a fool to ignore my destiny, but even fools have feelings, and
I’ve come to realize that you are the
most important thing I have in this world.
I’ve
made more mistakes in the last few months than some mistake in a lifetime. I
was wrong to have acted as I did when I found the letters, just as I was wrong
to hide the truth about what I was going through with respect to my past. But
most of all, I was wrong to deny what was obvious in my heart: that I can’t go on without you.
It
is my deepest wish that you give me one more chance. As you might have guessed,
I’m hoping that this bottle will work its magic, as I did once before, and
somehow bring us back together.
For
the first few days you left, I wanted to believe that I could go on as I always
had. But I couldn’t. Every time I
watched the sun go down, I thought of you and the wonderful times we had. I
knew in my heart that my life would never be the same again. I wanted you back
more than I imagine possible, yet whenever I conjured you up, I kept hearing
your words in our last conversation. No matter how much I loved you, I knew it
wasn’t going to be possible unless we – both of us – were sure I would devote
myself fully to the path that lay ahead. I continued to be troubled by these
thoughts until late last night when the answer finally came to me.
In
my dream I saw myself on the beach with Catherine, in the same spot I took you
after our lunch at Hank’s. It was bright in the sun, the rays reflecting
brilliantly off the sand. We walked alongside each other, and she listened
intently as I told her about you, about us, about the wonderful times we
shared. After some hesitation I admitted that I loved you but that I felt
guilty about her. She said nothing right away but simply kept walking until she
finally turned to me and asked, “Why?”
“Because
of you.”
Upon
hearing my answer, she smiled at me with patient amusement, the way she used to
before she died. “Oh, Garrett,” she
said as she gently touched my face, “who
do you think it was that brought the bottle to her?”
When
I woke, I felt empty and alone. The dream made me ache inside because of what I
had done to us, and I began to cry. When I pulled myself together, I wrote two
letters – the one you’re holding in your hand right now, and one to Catherine,
in which I finally said goodbye. Today I’m taking Hapenstance out to send it to her, as I have with all the others.
It will be my last letter. Catherine in her own way has told me to go on, and I
have chosen to listen, Not only to her words but also to the leanings of my
heart that led me back to you.
Oh,
Theresa, I am sorry, so very sorry, that I ever hurt you. I am coming to Boston
next week with the hope that you find a way to forgive me.
Theresa,
I love you and will always will. I am tired of being alone. I see children
crying and laughing as they play in the sand, and I realize I want to have
children with you. I want to watch Kevin as he grows into a man. I will move to
Boston if you ask because I cannot go on this way. I am sick and sad without
you. As I sit here in the kitchen, I am praying that you will let me come back
to you, this time forever.
Garrett
