I Remember You

At first the boy didn't think twice about the messy young girl sitting on the sidewalk on his way to work. Day after day she was there, nothing but another homeless child not unlike the hundreds you see on a daily basis in the big city. Always looking lonely, always looking helpless, always he passed her by.

One morning she was not there.

And she remained missing.
That afternoon, the next morning, and the morning after that. The mornings and afternoons came and went. And the boy found himself thinking more often of the messy girl.

Then one morning, something on the sidewalk.
A small note, written in black ink and smudged with dirty fingerprints.
He picked it up.

The next morning the boy didn't show up for work.
Nor the next, nor the next.

A week later the messy girl wandered back to her place on the sidewalk. She had lost a letter from her notebook. But, in her place on the sidewalk lay, not a sheet of paper, but a messy young boy.

A messy young boy lay sleeping on the sidewalk where she had once lain, with a piece of paper clutched in his hand. The messy young girl took the letter.
It was her letter.
It read:

"I'm so sick of being disposable. I just want to feel like I'm worth something. I need to know that I am capable of loving and being loved. I need to know that I am not just another forgotten soul. I need to know that you won't forget me."

And then, sprawled across the bottom of the page in red ink:

"I REMEMBER YOU."

The messy boy awoke...