Message In a Bottle

Cast of Characters:

Theresa Osborne
David Osborne
Kevin Osborne
Garrett Blake
Catherine Blake
Jeb Blake
Deanna
Brian

Settings:

The second romance novel written by American author Nicholas Sparks. The story, which explores the romance theme of love after grief, is set in the mid-late 1990s, then-contemporary Wilmington, North Carolina.

Theme:

" Everything happens for a reason. "

Author:

Nicholas Sparks is an American screenwriter and novelist, born on 31st December 1965 to Patrick Michael Sparks and Jill Emma Marie. He was the middle of three children. He was raised as a Catholic and he still follows the Catholic faith. He is very religious man; going to Church, Sunday school and confessions. His son is an altar boy. As a young kid he moved a lot as his father was continuing with his education. In 1974 his family finally settled in Fair Oaks in California where he graduated from Bella Vista High School as a valedictorian. For further studies he went to University of Notre Dame where he got a full track and field scholarship and graduated in 1988. He met the girl, who was later to become his wife, during the spring break of that year. They got married in 1989 and moved to Sacramento, California.

 Message In a Bottle 

Theresa Osborne, on a rare vacation, is running on the beach, thinking of her eight year marriage and the difficulties of dating with a twelve-year-old son Kevin Osborne at home.

Theresa admits to herself that she is lonely, not because she misses her husband specifically, but because she misses the companionship inherent to marriage. As these thoughts are going through her mind, Theresa sees a bottle on the beach.

Theresa get the bottle and she open it. Inside is one of the most touching love letters Theresa has ever read, apparently a letter from a man to his lost love Catherine.

July 22, 1997

My Dearest Catherine,

            I miss you, my darling, as I always do, but today is especially hard because the ocean has been singing to me, and the song is that of our life together. I can almost feel you beside me as I write this letter, and I can smell the scent of wildflowers that always reminds me of you. But at this moment, these things give me no pleasure. Your visits have been coming less often, and I feel sometimes as if the greatest part of who I am is slowly slipping away.

 I am trying, though. At night when I am alone, I call for you, and whenever my ache seems to be the greatest, you still seem to find a way to return to me. Last night, in my dreams, I saw you on the pier near Wrightsville Beach. The wind was blowing through your hair, and your eyes held the fading sunlight. I am struck as I see you leaning against the rail. You are beautiful, I think as I see you, a vision that I can never find in anyone else. I slowly begin to walk toward you, and when you finally turn to me, I notice that others have been watching you as well. "Do you know her?" they ask me in jealous whispers, and as you smile at me, I simply answer with the truth. "Better than my own heart."

I stop when I reach you and take you in my arms. I long for this moment more than any other. It is what I live for, and when you return my embrace, I give myself over to this moment, at peace once again.

I raise my hand and gently touch your cheek and you tilt your head and close your eyes. My hands are hard and your skin is soft, and I wonder for a moment if you'll pull back, but of course you don't. You never have, and it is at times like this that I know what my purpose is in life.

I am here to love you, to hold you in my arms, to protect you. I am here to learn from you and to receive your love in return. I am here because there is no other place to be.

But then, as always, the mist starts to form as we stand close to one another. It is a distant fog that rises from the horizon, and I find that I grow fearful as it approaches. It slowly creeps in, enveloping the world around us, fencing us in as if to prevent escape. Like a rolling cloud, it blankets everything, closing, until there is nothing left but the two of us.

I feel my throat begin to close and my eyes well up with tears because I know it is time for you to go. The look you give me at that moment haunts me. I feel your sadness and my own loneliness, and the ache in my heart that had been silent for only a short time grows stronger as you release me. And then you spread your arms and step back into the fog because it is your place and not mine. I long to go with you, but your only response is to shake your head because we both know that is impossible.

           

            And I watch with breaking heart as you slowly fade away. I find myself straining to remember everything about this moment, everything about you. But soon, always too soon, your image vanishes and the fog rolls back to its faraway place and I am alone on the pier and I do not care what others think as I bow my head and cry and cry and cry.

                                                                                                                               Garrett

When Theresa shows the letter to her friend and editor, she is talked into publishing the letter in her parenting column in the Boston Times. The reaction of the readers is overwhelming and Theresa returns from vacation to piles of letters and many phone calls from people wanting to know more. One of these phone calls comes from a woman claiming to have another letter written by the same man.

Theresa fell in love with Garrett and also Garrett to Theresa. 

At the end of the novel, 

A week or more later, Theresa finds a package from Garrett waiting for her. Theresa opens it and discovers a bottle with a message inside. 

 The letter tells her that Garrett has finally realized that Catherine has brought them together and it is time for him to let her go.

 Garrett also says in the letter that he went out on  that day to send one final letter to Catherine before devoting his life to a relationship with Theresa and Kevin. 

A year later, Theresa sends a letter to Garrett via a message in a bottle, thanking him for coming into her life and teaching her that she can go on despite her overwhelming grief.

(The End)