Ariella didn't expect anything in the mail that day.
She had stopped waiting for surprises a long time ago. Her mailbox had become a place of bills, catalogues, and the occasional sympathy card from someone who had just remembered. But that morning, tucked between a utility bill and a flyer for discounted roofing, was an envelope with no return address.
Her name wasn't on it. There was no stamp. Just a single line, written in unfamiliar handwriting:
To the girl who writes to the sky.
Her breath caught.
She stood frozen on the porch, the envelope trembling in her hands. For a moment, she thought it was a mistake. A prank. But something about the way the letters curved—careful, deliberate, almost reverent—told her otherwise.
She took it inside, sat at the kitchen table, and stared at it for a long time before opening it.
"I found your words today. I don't know if you meant for them to be found. But they found me anyway. And I think… I needed them."
The letter was short. Just a few lines. But they were enough to make her heart ache in a new way—one that wasn't entirely painful. Someone had read her letter. Someone had heard her.
She read it again. And again.
There was no name. No clue who he was. But his words felt honest. Gentle. Like someone who understood what it meant to carry grief like a second skin.
She pressed the paper to her chest and closed her eyes.
For the first time in years, she didn't feel alone in her sorrow.
That night, she sat at her desk, the same one where she had written dozens of letters to Daniel. But this time, she wasn't writing to the past. She was writing to someone who had answered.
"I never thought anyone would read those words. I didn't write them to be found. But I'm glad you did. I don't know who you are, but thank you for listening. For seeing me."
She didn't sign her name either. It felt safer that way. Like they were two ghosts speaking across a distance, bound not by identity, but by understanding.
She folded the letter, placed it in an envelope, and wrote on the front:
To the man who answered the sky.