Melvin's Kiss

*There is no fiction in this story, even though I am a writer and come from a long line or writers. Everything I state here is true.*

In May of 2000 on a Sunday morning, I awoke to get ready for church. I had just gotten a solid black outfit that I knew my best friend, Melvin, would love.

Now, in order to fully understand this story, you must first realize that Melvin and I were very close. I believe with every thing in me, that we were soul mates. I didn't even believe in soulmates until I met him. Also, you must realize that I had three best friends at the time - Melvin, Mikah, and Colin. We had our own little circle of friends, but Melvin and I were the closest.

At the time, Melvin and Mikah were dating. Even though I didn't know it when this took place, they had gotten in a huge argument and were going to break up. Mikah was going to set Melvin and I up because she knew that we were close friends. (Keep in mind, that I didn't know this.)

My mom has had several experiences every since she was a child, where she sees someone that has died. (This will all tie in later, I promise.)

Last important bit of information before I get on to the story - Melvin always used to treat me like a princess. He would kiss me on the hand or forehead when he saw me, he would rock me when I cried, etc. I never thought anything of it, I just thought of it as a nice gesture, as he was very much the gentleman.

That Sunday morning, I walked into the living room & sat down to wait for my parents to finish getting ready. My dad was standing in the kitchen ironing his pants on the counter & had a very tense look on his face. I hardly noticed, because I was so excited about seeing Melvin to tell him about a concert I had gone to the night before.

All of a sudden, my dad looked up at me and said, "How close were you to those boys...You know, Melvin & Arin?" (Arin was Melvin's cousin & also a good friend of mine. Melvin lived with Arin's famliy.) I told him that we were 'friends' and just left it at that, because my guess was that they had gotten in trouble for something, & my dad is very protective.

Then, my dad looked at me and said, "There was an accident." Trying to keep the emotion out of my voice, (I used to try to hide my emotions quite a bit), I said, "How are they?" He looked at me and said, "They're dead." I asked him how, & he said it was in a fire around 10 or 11 o'clock at night.

The previous night when I got in from the concert, it was about 10:30 p.m., and I almost called them to tell them about it, but didn't because I didn't want to get them in trouble because of calling them so late. This put a huge amount of guilt on me, because I felt like there was something I could've done, and it was my fault.

I remember sitting there for a moment and just staring at the floor. Then, all of a sudden, I just burst into tears and jumped up from the chair, screamed "NO!" as loud as I could, and ran out of the house. At the time, Colin lived a few houses down from me, so I ran straight to his house in complete hysterics.

I told him and Blinky, (a friend that had stayed with him who also knew Melvin), what had happened. My mom chased after me, & caught up with me a few minutes later.

Despite my fighting & arguing, she forced me to go to church anyway, because the youth pastor wanted to talk to the teens about what had happened, due to the fact that Melvin, Arin, Mikah, Colin, and I all attended this same church. (A girl named Dana also attended the church. You will hear about her later.)

My parents were both a part of the church praise & worship team, & so was Rev. (What we called the youth pastor.) They had to practice for the morning service that morning, so Rev had to leave after talking to us in Sunday School, which was all about what had happened...Any lesson he'd planned out got scratched.

My mom stayed in the youth room with me, instead of practicing, and no one else was in there besides us. I was crying & couldn't even say anything to anyone, when all of a sudden, I felt something start to rock me back and forth. My mom wasn't even touching me at the time. Then, out of nowhere, I heard Melvin say "I love you" and I felt him kiss me on the forehead.

Even though I didn't know it until later, at that same moment, my other best friend, and now closest since Melvin was gone, Mikah, had just gotten to the church. While this was going on, she was trying to get in the youth room, and said the door was locked. That door didn't lock. She and I both knew that.

I know this is getting pretty long, but there is something else that goes to this story that is even more shocking than what I've just told you.

My mom knew that Melvin & I were best friends, but she didn't know that he used to kiss me on the forehead, and she had no idea how close we were.

Many times, my mom will wake up in the middle of the night with a song, poem, story, skit, or novel of some type in her head. She's been a writer since she was about twelve. One night, about a week after Melvin died, she woke up with something telling her, (in Melvin's voice), to get a piece of paper and a pen.

She did this, and out of nowhere, wrote a poem. Melvin was also a poet. She said it was the weirdest thing, because she felt like she wasn't even writing, but almost as if someone or something else had a hold of her hand and was guiding it. I hadn't told her what happened that Sunday morning. No one knew except Mikah.

You must realize, I was going through a very rough time, because as if Melvin and Arin dying wasn't enough, two days later, Dana shot herself, and shortly after, Colin moved, and Mikah's mom stopped letting her come to Livingston because they were having family problems with the member Mikah stayed with when she came down every weekend. (She lives about an hour away from me.) Also, in February, my great-grandmother had died, which I still wasn't over, because everyone else in my family totally fell apart when that happened, and I couldn't really cry, because I had to stay strong for my mom and my grandma.

As you can imagine, I was in a total and complete state of shock and depression. I was writing poems that would tell how deeply hurt I was and how I just wanted to die. (Yes, I write, too.)

The next day, when my mom gave me this poem, I burst into tears when I read it, and tucked it away. My mom didn't' even understand any of what she wrote, and kept asking me about it. And the handwriting looked more like Melvin's than hers. Melvin had written me many letters, but she had never seen any of them. I didn't show her until after I saw the one she wrote.

In the months following, I was still going through a very hard time, and she kept waking up in the middle of the night and writing things like the poem from Melvin. All from people who had gone on. She got one more from Melvin, and then one from John Dustin, a baby she miscarried who would now be in his 20's, and one from Tyler, another miscarried baby of hers, who would now be around 19. In Tyler's letter, he described Mevlin, Arin, and Dana, he described their personalities, and had a small part in there of little things they wanted to tell me. There was no way my mom could've known, or come up with, any of this. Keep in mind, Melvin's letter, John Dustin's letter, and Tyler's letter all had different handwriting.

I still have these letters, and in the very first one that was written - the one from Melvin - the last phrase of the poem is:

" I was with you Sunday morning, And I must ask you this - Did you feel my kiss? "

I know this may sound far-fetched, and I'm sorry it was so long