he was 60 or 70 years old, I guessed: \grandchild?\
\think of it\my oldest friend. In fact, we used to call each other 'Old Friend' — when we'd meet, that is. I'm not much of a hand at writing.\ \said. \quite a while?\
\back.\
\
\fact, through both grade and high school.\
\are not too many people who've had such a long friendship,\
\the driver went on, \hadn't seen him more than once or twice a year over the past 25 or 30 years because I moved away from the old neighborhood and you kind of lose touch even though you never forget. He was a great guy.\ \—?\ He nodded. \
\— and losing a real old one is even tougher.\
He didn't reply to that, and we rode on in silence for a few minutes. But I realized that Old Ed was still on his mind when he spoke again, almost more to himself than to me: \should have kept in touch. Yes,\he repeated, \should have kept in touch.\
\more than we do. But things come up and we just don't seem to find the time.\
He shrugged. \mentioned in the letter.\ \I said, \I don't want to read your mail. That's pretty personal.\
The driver shrugged. \Ed's dead. There's nothing personal now. Go ahead,\
The letter was written in pencil. It began with the greeting \Friend,\meaning to write for some time, but I've always postponed it. It then went on to say that he often thought about the good times they had had together when they both lived in the same
neighborhood. It had references to things that probably meant something to the driver, such as the time Tim Shea broke the window, the Halloween that we tied Old Mr. Parker's gate, and when Mrs. Culver used to keep us after school.
\ \those days was time.\
I thought the next paragraph of the letter was a little sad: I began the letter with \Friend\because that's what we've become over the years — old friends. And there aren't many of us left. \many of us left, that's absolutely right. Every time I go to a class reunion, for example, there are fewer and fewer still around.\ \
\
\And then, when we were married, we used to go to each other's house every now and then. But for the last 20 or 30 years it's been mostly just Christmas cards. Of course there'd be always a note we'd each add to the cards — usually some news about our families, you know, what the kids were doing, who moved where, a new grandchild, things like that — but never a real
letter or anything like that.\
\over the years has meant an awful lot to me, more than I can say because I'm not good at saying things like that. \nodding in agreement. \must have made you feel good, didn't it?\
The driver said something that I couldn't understand because he seemed to be all choked up, so I continued: \receive a letter like that from my oldest friend.\
We were getting close to our destination so I skipped to the last paragraph. So I thought you'd like to know that I was thinking of you. And it was signed，Your Old Friend, Tom.
I handed back the letter as we stopped at my hotel. \talking with you,\I said as I took my suitcase out of the cab. Tom? The letter was signed Tom?
\it Tom?\
\a letter I wrote to him before I knew he'd died. So I never mailed it.\
He looked sort of sorrowful, or as if he were trying to see something in the distance. \guess I should have written it