Immediately she got a call from Lawrence about his presence in Chicago, she notified Tom and insisted that this is the perfect time to come clean to Lawrence. He wanted to decline but took courage and thanks to her persuasion, he felt the need to reconcile too.
Lawrence was taken aback by what she just revealed to him. What does she mean by his friend is her man? How did she know about that or why is she sure?
“Your man? I hope you are not mistaken, it might just be a mix up somewhere” he stuttered but she flashed a short smile.
“He was the one that told me that line and you recognized the line when I used it. “My friend gave me Umbra because of my strokes” she answered swiftly and Lawrence held his head in pain.
The revelation was too shocking for him that he doesn’t even know how to react. His mind flashed by to when he almost confessed to his man’s fiancé but that was not the issue at hand, his friend he has been looking for all his life was right outside, waiting to meet him.
“I should call him in right?” she asked carefully and he nodded, still too stunned to talk.
She stood up and went to get Tom at the door after texting him, linked her hand in his arm to get him ready and focused as a sign of her own comfort as they approached Lawrence.
Lawrence stood up at the sight of Tom and she unlinked her arm from his, “Meet my boss and man, Mr. Tom Holland and also your long lost friend” she said to Lawrence before turning to Tom, “Meet my partner at work, Mr. Lawrence Manon, and also your long lost friend” she concluded and left them to finish their talk.
“Good evening” Tom managed to break the silence but Lawrence was still hesitant. He didn’t want to believe in a rush and also the friend he knew was never Holland.
“We couldn’t recognize each other because things were too different. We never knew each other’s surnames, we didn’t know anything about each other. The only thing we focused on was our drawings. That must be the reason why we have never been able to find each other for the past years” Tom stated and Lawrence nodded, he was saying the truth. Exactly what happened between him and his friend was what Tom said so every doubt washed away.
***
Tom was originally living in Boston before he moved down to Chicago. He was living with his mother’s family and met Lawrence there. He was sitting alone in the alley the day he first saw him and he couldn’t pass him by.
“What are you doing here? Are you not going home? It’s getting pretty late” he asked, crouching down to his level but Lawrence didn’t utter any word. He just stared at Tom with his arms folded together on his chest.
“You look hungry and tired, do you want to share my cookies with me?” Tom asked further and brought out a box of cookies which Lawrence snatched before he could even say anything.
Lawrence tore the nylon seal and started to devour it while Tom who was previously shocked just had to look at him cutely in admiration. “You will choke if you rush it” he cautioned him as he stuffed the cookies in his mouth without finishing the previous one.
He made sure to stay by his side silently and brought out his can of water so he could drink from it. When Lawrence was done with the cookies, he broke down into tears making him confused. He quickly rushed to hold him, thinking he had hurt himself but what he said made Tom laugh so hard that day.
“I feel so bad that I finished the whole box but I was just so hungry and the cookies were too delicious. I know I should have left some but I was too hungry” he cried so hard that Tom could only laugh.
Tom reached for his eyes and wiped his tears fondly, “I am not mad that you finished it, I am happy that you could eat it” he said with so much love making Lawrence finally calm down.
“I will give you as many cookies as I can if you tell me the reason why you are not going home” he bargained and Lawrence had no choice but to answer. “Because no one wants me at home” he revealed and that rendered Tom speechless.
“Why would no one want you? You don’t have a family? Or someone that looks for you if you don’t come home early? My family here freaks out if I don’t come home early” Tom pouted and Lawrence shook his head. “No one wants me unless I stop painting. I bought painting materials with every money I got” Lawrence responded and Tom’s face lit up.
“You paint? I also paint too” he announced with joy.
That marked the start of their friendship. Tom took him to the small house where he draws his painting even though it was a mess, it was very beautiful for a child’s work.
“Why is there a shadow on every of your work?” Lawrence asked curiously and the smile slowly disappeared from his face. “That was the first thing I knew how to draw with my father but he is no more. I only managed to get passed the shadow but it still reflects on my works” he answered with a sad voice which made Lawrence hug him for comfort.
“I guess we all have our stories” Lawrence commented.
They sat down to draw and they had a happy time together. Lawrence would come over every time to his place to draw after school but the funniest part of their friendship was that they never asked for each other’s names.
Lawrence gifted Tom a drawing of his cookies he ate and told him “I will call you Umbra from today because of the strokes of your brush” while Tom replied with “Then I will call you cookies because that was how we met” making them giggle.
They drew based on their feelings and were always encouraging each other. They vowed to have an exhibition some day and practiced hard towards their dreams. The eleven year old boys had nothing in mind except their bright future in arts and worked tirelessly towards it.
They didn’t have anyone to guide them through but they saved money to buy books and supplies, they were so committed and made sure to draw based on their feelings, inspiration and expectations.
Tom suddenly disappeared one day and didn’t have the chance to notify Lawrence because it was unexpected. His mother, Anita who was working deep in town usually come around every weekend to see him but that weekend, she came to pick him finally.
He ran over to the drawing house and waited for hours to see if Lawrence would show up but didn’t. While he was waiting, he drew the alley with the both of them where they were eating cookies and attached a note that he had really wanted to eat cookies with him there but it’s sad he wouldn’t be able to do that anymore.
Lawrence was sick that day and didn’t visit the house until three days later when he saw that the house had been emptied. Both the drawing and the notes were gone and no one told him about it, he also didn’t know his family so he couldn’t walk in to ask him of Tom.
Lawrence finally got a sponsor who took him to art school and paid all his expenses, it was then his family had no choice to support him. Ever since he made his exhibition and success, he had been looking out for unknown artists with the hope of meeting Tom by the stroke of his brush and that was exactly the reason why he picked his work at the exhibition even though he was disappointed that a female showed up to be the owner.
He had even thought about different scenarios that maybe Tom was a girl then in a boy’s clothing because he was convinced that there was no how the statement coming from Amber could be a coincidence.
***
They hugged each other tightly and didn’t know when tears fell down from their eyes. Their memories had come back to connect them after sixteen good years. They couldn’t stop patting each other’s backs and laughing amidst the tears.
“I was always dying to meet you and here you are, Umbra” Lawrence sniffed while Tom just stared at him “I am always curious to see if you have achieved your dreams, Cookies and you really did” he remarked making them laugh.
The “cookies” and “umbra” nicknames still stuck to them and they were glad to be able to relive those names once again.
Lawrence suddenly threw in his question “Why is your girlfriend filling the space for you though?” he asked curiously and Tom scratched his head.