Based on 81 community votes, the most popular answer to “The Halloween Box, the Parking Lot, and His Letter” is “Bring the letter to the cemetery” — chosen by 16% of voters.
Category: heartwarming • Theme: ⏳ Too Late
I start with the Halloween costume box. It is still in the attic, lid bowed a little in the middle, dust stuck to the plastic like flour. I opened it this October for the first time since getting out. I don't know why. Now. The letter arrived three days after my son's funeral. The postmark looks smeared, like maybe it rained that day. My name is on the front in his uneven teenage print. Then. Every October 1st, I used to drag the Halloween costume box down from the hall closet. My boy would dive in, pirate hat over astronaut suit, plastic vampire teeth clicking against his braces. I remember one year the Spirit Halloween receipt was still in the box, $19.99 for a plastic scythe I swore we would reuse. Now again. They say he came to the parking lot of the correctional facility every visiting Saturday. Six years, every visiting day without exception. He would sit on the curb when my name was not on the approved list, backpack under his feet, thermos next to him. The guards remember him more than they remember me. The letter says he knew I kept refusing his visits. He writes he saved his lunch money to pay the bus fare, that he skipped field trips, that he never told anyone at school. I always thought he stayed away because he was ashamed of me. He bought every bus ticket. He waited. He never told me. What would YOU do?
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