It had been awhile since Carla had dated and a friend of hers from church, Melissa, had mentioned to Carla about a pen pal club, entitled Friends First. Melissa had suggested Carla try this avenue and see where it led. With the times of computers, smart phones and such, this was an old fashioned snail mail kind of connection. Carla gave some thought to it and then put it out of her mind.
The next couple of days, Carla went about her normal routine. Getting up at the crack of dawn to go jogging, coming home to a hot shower, a cup of coffee and her cat Bear. It was the weekend and she had the weekend off, due to a rotating schedule at the hospital, where she worked as an Xray Technician. Carla has planned to do some grocery shopping, get a few things for her apartment, get take out Chinese and watch old movies over the weekend. Nothing fancy, just a nice relaxing weekend.
Although Carla loved her job at the hospital, her shifts would leave her tired a lot of the time, and she would have really liked to unwind with her friends, from time to time. Speaking of her friends, she had lots of acquaintances, but as far as friends she could truly count on, sadly to say, she could count them all on one hand.
Upon graduation from college with her friends choosing different career paths, it was sometimes difficult for them to get together, due to their much unique work schedules. Melissa, of course, was her bestest best friend, and they still managed to spend a lot of time together. Carla was still in touch with a few other friends, Danielle and Sarah. Sometimes the four of them would don their best attire for a night on the town, or a simple dinner and a movie.
Carla loved her time with her friends, but she knew something was missing in her life. She had previously been in a long relationship with Scott, whom she thought she would end up spending the rest of her life with, until she caught him cheating on her with one of her ex friends. What a disappointment that had been. A major setback in her life. At first she shut down completely, not letting anyone in, not even Melissa. She took this as a personal matter, Scott had cheated because of something that was missing in their relationship. After all, they had been together 4 years, so she was sure it was her, that something was wrong with her. She volunteered to work lots of overtime, and when she wasn't working she was sleeping. A lot.
Finally she decided she was much too young to spend her life in such a manner, she decided she needed to see a therapist of some kind, her decision. She didn't tell anyone, but people started noticing the old Carla was emerging. And a more confident Carla. She never told anyone about her therapy appointments, because although she WAS becoming more confident, she still had issues to work out, and admitting that she needed help of any kind would feel like she failed at something again. She never wanted to feel like that again. Carla knew that life was full of ups and downs and that she had to forget Scot and move on. It was time. After 3 months, she finally knew it was over and not worth pursuing no matter what happened with Scot and whats her name.
Carla, was in her apartment, playing with her cat Bear and listening to her radio, when the doorbell rang. She jumped up to answer it, and Melissa was there with a folder she handed to Carla. "What's this?" Carla eyed the folder suspiciously. Melissa said, "I think it is time now that you look at this brochure." Carla opened up the folder with apprehension and saw the photo on the front of this brochure of a man and a woman talking over a glass of wine and sure enough on the headline it read Friends First. Carla sighed, she put it on the coffee table in the living room, and the two girls started talking about work, life in general and planning their next girls weekend.
Long after Melissa had left, Carla decided to read the Friends First brochure. It was a free pen pal service, so she decided to write to the address on the brochure for a list of names of young men she could write to. Upon her way to work one morning, she dropped the inquiry in the mail and didn't really think much about it, until the following week when she received a large manilla envelope in the mail. She opened it up to find a list of about 20 names of men she could write to. How to choose just one? After a few moments of reading the names, and very little description of each one, she decided to write 5 different guys. She wasn't given actual addresses to these men's homes, it was more like a number system. In essence they would communicate via a handwritten letter through this Friends First establishment.
Carla was new to this, never writing much snail mail in her life. She decided to give a brief description of herself, she didn't really know what to put in an "introduction" letter. She decided she would probably never meet any of these men anyway. She started with "My name is Carla, I am 27 years old, I work as an Xray Technician in a local hospital. I enjoy travelling, reading, jogging, shopping, antiques, music, etc." That sounded boring to her each time she re read what she had written, but like she thought what does it matter, I will probably not meet a single guy. She sent all 5 guys the same letter, seemed like a chain letter, but she mailed them off on her way to jog anyway.
Exactly one week to the day she dropped those 5 letters in the mail, she received 2 replies. She then felt like a kid in the candy store, anticipating what those letters held. She received one letter from a military guy, who seemed like a very nice person, he even enclosed a picture of himself. She knew from all the movies on Lifetime, that you never trust a picture. It could be of someone else, or it could be a very old picture, but whoever it was, was nice looking. His name was Larry and he had the widest grin and deep blue green eyes. His letter was very nice and the charm oozed out of this very letter she now held. She placed it to the side and opened the 2nd letter, which was so boring it almost put her to sleep. The 2nd guy worked in a factory and drove a bulldozer and couldn't spell worth anything. Maybe more contact with Mr Military Man, but no to factory worker. Not that she was judging a profession that anyone chose, or had, but spelling was a big deal to her. She wanted to at least be on the same level as far as conversations went, not too much to ask she didn't think.
It took a few days til she responded to Mr Military Man and soon they had been writing back and forth for a few weeks. She had gotten some other replies to her other letters she had sent, but she was not as intrigued by anyone as she was by Mr Military Man. Something in the way he spoke on written pages, how he described things to her in great detail, how he asked her more about herself, how he spoke highly of his family, etc, Carla knew she had to meet him. Of course, Melissa knew all about this, how many letters Carla had sent out, how many responses she had gotten, and how her friend eagerly checked her mail almost every day now, anticipating another letter from Mr Military Man.
One Sunday afternoon, she received a phone call from a number she didn't recognize, she chose to answer the call anyway. It turned out to be Larry aka Mr Military Man! She had forgotten she had included her phone number in a previous letter to him. It was nice to hear his voice on the other end of the line! She felt like a giddy school girl. Although she was talking to a complete stranger, they ended up talking for 3 hours! Never at a loss for conversation, he asked her if he could call her again the following weekend. For the next 3 months, they communicated by snail mail and phone calls. Mr Military Man was getting leave soon and he wanted to meet Carla in person, asked her if she would have the weekend off on the time he could fly to meet her. She told him she would make it happen.
Melissa accompanied Carla to the airport to pick Mr Military Man up, so they would keep it safe, in case something was awry with this wonderful man who seemed too much to be true. Their meeting for the very first time was not awkward at all, Carla was so nervous on how this could have went, first impressions and all. Mr Military Man, it seemed, was exactly how he portrayed himself in their letters and on the phone. And the picture he had originally sent, was actually him, only he looked so much cuter in person! Larry took Carla AND Melissa out to dinner, and then Melissa dropped Larry and Carla back at Carla's apartment, giving her friend the thumbs up sign. It had been arranged that Larry stay at a hotel 2 blocks away, but when they talked through the night, Carla decided to let him crash on her couch. She liked his wide grin even more in person, and his easy going manner, she wanted to pinch herself still...felt too good to be true. He seemed to really like her as well. He stayed for 3 days and it felt to her like a dream, it had been the best 3 days of her entire life. When he left the emotions were high for both of them!
The letters, cards, phone calls and flowers were now a constant in their lives. Mr Military Man had decided not to enlist again because he wanted to get out of the service and start a new life and eventually start a family. Carla was thrilled that he chose to move to her city, but not in with her, as believe it or not, he was a little old fashioned. He wanted to date on more normal terms since he was there with her in the same city and they no longer had to rely on snail mail.
One magical night, about a year after Mr Military Man left the military, when they were out on the town with friends, she ran into her ex Scot, who had yet another girl on his arm. He made small talk with Carla, and asked who her friend was. Larry smiled and said "I am her future husband, if she agrees to marry me." Carla beamed up at Larry and knew that she had made the best decision of her life, when she had listened to her best friend Melissa and decided to take a chance on Friends First.
Great job!!
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