Chapter XV
Dear George,
I thought I’d give you a couple weeks to respond, but I’m not going to let your lack of response keep me from writing to you. San Diego is a great little town. I’ve gotten settled. I’m sharing a house with a friend I knew in grad school. We have a spare room if you ever want to come visit. You left too fast to even get a visit. I could take you to dinner at the El Cortez Hotel - it’s the tallest building and the view is spectacular.
I start work on Monday. I’m excited. The setting is beautiful. The actual laboratory is at the base of a mesa in Sorrento Valley. We’re just minutes away from La Jolla - the jewel. The ocean is so blue there. With math, you never know if you’re going to find work in y our field or if you will teach. I get to put my skills to work every day, doing mathematics. The project I’m working on reminds me of those stories you love so much by those fellows Asimov and Bradbury. You know we are in a space race with the Russians - who will get to the moon first. I can honestly say that that my project has nothing to do with the moon.
Please write back if you get a chance. I’d love to hear about how your year is going. Don’t let Pops work you too hard, have some fun also.
Your loving brother,
Gerald
To all outward appearances, reading through the box of letters should have been an easy task. Jamie and Helen were at her house with the box of letters, Jamie’s grandmom’s letter opener - to prevent damaging the paper or postmarks. Ostensibly, they were there to watch Helen’s little sister - who was happily playing her Zoobles in front of the TV in the next room. After opening the first couple, they quickly discovered everything was out of order. So, they first tried organizing by postmark - but not all the marks were still visible. They had two piles - one arranged by visible postmark, and the second was a stack with unreadable and no postmark. These they opened first, to get a date and put them in the correct chronological order. The second problem was that some of the letters had a month and day but no year.
Since Jerry had arrived in San Diego in June of 1958, and he disappeared in May of 1960, anything with a month of January through May, without a year had to be 1959 or 1960. Similarly, anything from July to December couldn’t be 1958. If there were unknowns, they left these in yet another pile. They wanted to get everything in order thinking that would cause the story to unfold, and they’d understand what happened.
When Grandpa George had given Jamie the letters, he’d answered a few more questions. Grandpa didn’t know if Gerald had written to their parents, although he assumed. While his parents never mentioned receiving news from Gerald, they knew that George received letters because George was still living at home.
“It wasn’t like now where there’s instant communication, and everyone is connected to a phone all the time. A call from San Diego to Chicago was expensive, and likely on a party line - where others could listen in - not as bad as if someone hacks your phone today, but your business would be out there just the same. When the government showed up, after his disappearance, I was away at school in Chicago, the letters were in the bottom of my trunk. I didn’t even think to turn them over. They were personal. Maybe if he wrote to our parents, the government has those letters. I really don’t know.”
Jamie promised to take care of the letters and treat them with respect. Grandpa George made him promise he wouldn’t divulge the contents of the letters to him, unless he specifically asked questions. Jamie promised, seeing that this was an obvious conflict for his grandpa. Grandmom on the other hand offered to help - if there was anything she could do - until Grandpa gave her the stinkeye.
“Can’t help a body from being curious” Grandmom said as she tousled Jamie’s hair. Go on with you. See if you can find out what happened to your uncle.”
Chapter XVI
Things were still awkward. If they both reached for the same letter and brushed hands, they’d both pull back as if stung. And neither could meet the other’s eyes. Jamie noticed that the last couple times he’d seen Helen, she was wearing barrettes in her hair. He wasn’t sure he liked them. He thought her short short hair looked like Helen, and the barrettes and was that lip gloss, just made her look not like Helen. But he didn’t want to say anything, because he didn’t want to say the wrong thing. So he stayed quiet and things just got tenser.
Gina came in and asked for a snack. Jamie offered to help and started slicing apples which he sprinkled with cinnamon. Helen sliced some mild cheddar to go with this. She offered a piece to Jamie, and they joined Gina at the breakfast bar, not wanting to mix food with the delicate letters. Gina finished her snack and returned to her Zoobles. Helen and Jamie finished their cinnamon apples in silence. Jamie jumped down from the high stool, to put his dish in the dishwasher. Helen got caught on the corner of the chair and would have fallen if Jamie hadn’t caught her. Her sunshine scented hair was right against his face. She turned in his arms to right herself.
“Um Thank you.” She said, slightly flushed.
Then she picked up both dishes and headed into the kitchen. When she returned to the dining room table, Jamie noticed she was no longer wearing the barrettes. The apples had done away with the lip gloss. She looked like Helen again.
— Lkai
Dear George,
I thought I’d give you a couple weeks to respond, but I’m not going to let your lack of response keep me from writing to you. San Diego is a great little town. I’ve gotten settled. I’m sharing a house with a friend I knew in grad school. We have a spare room if you ever want to come visit. You left too fast to even get a visit. I could take you to dinner at the El Cortez Hotel - it’s the tallest building and the view is spectacular.
I start work on Monday. I’m excited. The setting is beautiful. The actual laboratory is at the base of a mesa in Sorrento Valley. We’re just minutes away from La Jolla - the jewel. The ocean is so blue there. With math, you never know if you’re going to find work in y our field or if you will teach. I get to put my skills to work every day, doing mathematics. The project I’m working on reminds me of those stories you love so much by those fellows Asimov and Bradbury. You know we are in a space race with the Russians - who will get to the moon first. I can honestly say that that my project has nothing to do with the moon.
Please write back if you get a chance. I’d love to hear about how your year is going. Don’t let Pops work you too hard, have some fun also.
Your loving brother,
Gerald
To all outward appearances, reading through the box of letters should have been an easy task. Jamie and Helen were at her house with the box of letters, Jamie’s grandmom’s letter opener - to prevent damaging the paper or postmarks. Ostensibly, they were there to watch Helen’s little sister - who was happily playing her Zoobles in front of the TV in the next room. After opening the first couple, they quickly discovered everything was out of order. So, they first tried organizing by postmark - but not all the marks were still visible. They had two piles - one arranged by visible postmark, and the second was a stack with unreadable and no postmark. These they opened first, to get a date and put them in the correct chronological order. The second problem was that some of the letters had a month and day but no year.
Since Jerry had arrived in San Diego in June of 1958, and he disappeared in May of 1960, anything with a month of January through May, without a year had to be 1959 or 1960. Similarly, anything from July to December couldn’t be 1958. If there were unknowns, they left these in yet another pile. They wanted to get everything in order thinking that would cause the story to unfold, and they’d understand what happened.
When Grandpa George had given Jamie the letters, he’d answered a few more questions. Grandpa didn’t know if Gerald had written to their parents, although he assumed. While his parents never mentioned receiving news from Gerald, they knew that George received letters because George was still living at home.
“It wasn’t like now where there’s instant communication, and everyone is connected to a phone all the time. A call from San Diego to Chicago was expensive, and likely on a party line - where others could listen in - not as bad as if someone hacks your phone today, but your business would be out there just the same. When the government showed up, after his disappearance, I was away at school in Chicago, the letters were in the bottom of my trunk. I didn’t even think to turn them over. They were personal. Maybe if he wrote to our parents, the government has those letters. I really don’t know.”
Jamie promised to take care of the letters and treat them with respect. Grandpa George made him promise he wouldn’t divulge the contents of the letters to him, unless he specifically asked questions. Jamie promised, seeing that this was an obvious conflict for his grandpa. Grandmom on the other hand offered to help - if there was anything she could do - until Grandpa gave her the stinkeye.
“Can’t help a body from being curious” Grandmom said as she tousled Jamie’s hair. Go on with you. See if you can find out what happened to your uncle.”
Chapter XVI
Things were still awkward. If they both reached for the same letter and brushed hands, they’d both pull back as if stung. And neither could meet the other’s eyes. Jamie noticed that the last couple times he’d seen Helen, she was wearing barrettes in her hair. He wasn’t sure he liked them. He thought her short short hair looked like Helen, and the barrettes and was that lip gloss, just made her look not like Helen. But he didn’t want to say anything, because he didn’t want to say the wrong thing. So he stayed quiet and things just got tenser.
Gina came in and asked for a snack. Jamie offered to help and started slicing apples which he sprinkled with cinnamon. Helen sliced some mild cheddar to go with this. She offered a piece to Jamie, and they joined Gina at the breakfast bar, not wanting to mix food with the delicate letters. Gina finished her snack and returned to her Zoobles. Helen and Jamie finished their cinnamon apples in silence. Jamie jumped down from the high stool, to put his dish in the dishwasher. Helen got caught on the corner of the chair and would have fallen if Jamie hadn’t caught her. Her sunshine scented hair was right against his face. She turned in his arms to right herself.
“Um Thank you.” She said, slightly flushed.
Then she picked up both dishes and headed into the kitchen. When she returned to the dining room table, Jamie noticed she was no longer wearing the barrettes. The apples had done away with the lip gloss. She looked like Helen again.
— Lkai
Note - there is no part X. My bad. I am not good with numbers.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they got the letters and are being orderly about the reading. You capture the awkward teen attraction so well. I'm over here patiently waiting for chapter next!
ReplyDelete