1. The First Letter:
It started with a letter. A simple hello. A quiet beginning.
It was late August when Cole found the pen pal program. It wasn’t meant for people like him—not really. Most of the participants were students, travelers, people looking for casual friendships. But Cole wasn’t looking for something casual. He was looking for hope. A reason to believe in tomorrow.
His days were predictable: the same walls, the same routine, the same silence. He had once dreamed of more. A home. A woman to love. A life beyond these fences. But that dream had been stolen from him seven years ago, lost in a single, irreversible mistake.
Still, he wrote the message.
“Hey, I’m Cole. It’s strange writing to a stranger, but there’s something about this that makes me want to try. I don’t know what I’m looking for, but maybe we can figure it out together?”
He never expected a response.
But the next day, a letter arrived.
“Hi Cole, I’m Evelyn. It’s strange, isn’t it? Writing to someone you don’t know. But I like strange things.”
And just like that, it began.
Evelyn’s letters were bright, full of warmth and color. She wrote about her love for tulips, her childhood dream of being an astronaut, the way she felt invisible even in a crowded room. She made Cole feel like he was outside these walls, walking through sunlit streets, feeling the wind on his skin.
Cole, in turn, gave her glimpses of himself—his love for the ocean, his grandmother’s baking, the way he dreamed of a house with a blue door and a small garden.
“I don’t know if I believe in soulmates,” Evelyn wrote once.
“Maybe that’s what we’re figuring out,” Cole replied.
2. Chasing the Impossible:
It didn’t take long for Cole to realize he was falling for Evelyn.
It was terrifying how easy it was.
When he sent her a poem titled Maiden of the East, Evelyn read it three times, her chest tightening with each line. His words were steeped in longing, painting a picture of a woman he had never seen but somehow knew.
“I think I’m falling in love with you,” he wrote. “No—I know I am.”
Evelyn’s hands trembled when she replied.
“I think I am too.”
It felt impossible.
A man locked away from the world, chasing a dream he had no right to hope for. A woman on the outside, free but searching for something she couldn’t name.
And yet, they talked about everything. Love. Marriage. Home.
“I want two kids,” Cole wrote once. “A little house with a porch. A place where I can finally breathe.”
Evelyn smiled as she read. “I think you’d be a great dad.”
“You’d be an amazing mom.”
“Do you think we’ll ever get there?” she asked.
Cole hesitated before replying.
“I have to believe we will. Because if I don’t, I have nothing.”
3. The Truth:
Cole’s letters became heavier after a while. There was an undercurrent Evelyn couldn’t ignore.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” he wrote one evening. “But I’m scared it’s going to change things.”
Evelyn’s heart twisted.
“Tell me,” she wrote back.
Three days passed before his reply arrived.
“Evelyn,” it began. “I’ve rewritten this a hundred times. I don’t know how to say it, so I’m just going to say it: I’m in prison.”
Evelyn’s breath stopped.
“I’ve been here since I was 23. I’m 30 now. My grandmother has been helping me send these letters. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to lose you. But you deserved the truth.”
The letter slipped from Evelyn’s fingers.
Her phone buzzed. A new message.
“This is Cole’s grandmother. He’s a good boy. He made a mistake—a terrible one. But he’s not that person anymore. Please don’t hate him.”
Evelyn didn’t write back for days.
Cole’s next letter arrived a week later.
“I’m so sorry,” he wrote. “Please talk to me.”
Evelyn sat at her desk, pen in hand, heart racing.
“I don’t know how to trust you,” she wrote. “But I don’t know how to let you go.”
4. The Underdog’s Fight:
Cole’s letters didn’t stop.
Every day, another one arrived.
“I know I hurt you,” he wrote. “But everything I told you was real. You are real to me.”
Evelyn wasn’t sure why she kept reading them. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was something more.
She started asking questions. Hard ones.
“What happened?” she asked.
Cole told her the truth. All of it. He didn’t try to soften it or hide from it. He admitted his mistakes. He told her about the anger, the shame, the years of trying to forgive himself.
“I’ve changed,” he wrote. “But I’ll understand if that’s not enough.”
Evelyn’s heart ached.
“What are you hoping for?” she asked.
“That maybe you could still love me,” Cole replied. “That maybe you’d be willing to wait.”
5. The Dream That Shouldn’t Exist:
It took weeks. Months, maybe.
But Evelyn kept writing.
Cole was patient. He answered her questions honestly, never shying away from the hard conversations. He never rushed her, never begged. He just kept showing up.
She started to see him—not just the man who had made a mistake, but the man who was fighting to be better.
“Do you think you could wait for me?” he asked one night.
“Twelve years is a long time,” Evelyn replied.
“I know.”
“But yes,” she whispered. “I think I could.”
The next morning, another letter arrived.
“You don’t have to promise me forever,” Cole wrote. “Just today. And maybe tomorrow. That’s enough.”
6. The Impossible Dream Lives:
One evening, Evelyn sat by the window with Cole’s latest letter in her hand. The sun was setting, gold and deep blue spilling across the sky.
She traced his name on the paper.
She still didn’t know what the future held. The odds were against them. Cole was an underdog chasing an impossible dream freedom, love, a home with her.
But she believed in him.
And sometimes, belief was enough to turn the impossible into something real.
She picked up her pen and began to write.
"I’ll wait. However long it takes. Because I believe in you, Cole. And I believe in us."
