He just wanted to leave and make a life for himself.
He was their only child and he loved his parents, but this was something he had to do. In a way, he’d been thinking about it for a number of months and certainly planning it for a couple of weeks. The message he left was brief, but he wanted them to understand, and for that reason he was careful with what he wrote. It was a simple note and read: ‘I love you both. But I need to make a life for myself. Please don’t look for me. You don’t have to worry. I’ll be OK.’ He stuck it in a prominent position on the wall above the chest of drawers where his collection of sports trophies were displayed.
His leaving had left them in a state of bewilderment.
Almost twenty years had passed before his old room was being updated and the furniture was moved around. They found the note where it had dropped down behind the chest of drawers where his collection of sports trophies used to be displayed. It was a small piece of paper with a few fading lines on one side and a little pink blob on the other.
There is a case for wondering whether finding it at the time he left would have actually made any difference one way or the other.
Anyway, in practical terms, the only thing of value to come out of the finding of it was the certain knowledge that Pink-tac really wasn’t as good as Blu Tack.