Unsent Letters

(Hidden inside an alarmingly bright pink t shirt with creepy-eyed kitten on it in the back of Laura’s drawer.)

Dear Uncle Kenneth.

They still won’t tell me where you are so I’m going to write to you here and then when they believe me I can post you everything at the same time. I’m in a new place and it’s called high grove and they have cows and chickens and horses and a library and everything and we go to school here and the people are nice and there’s a really nice girl called Kizzy who played with me when the lights went dark.

She disappeared after that so I didn’t know where she was and I thought she was dead but she wasn’t so I gave her a picture to say I’m glad she isn’t. And there are five other girls in my dorm with me called Maggie, who’s from America I think, and Kizzy who I told you about and Faith who doesn’t like me, but I like her. She gets to look after chickens for her chores and I go in the kitchen and do things there but I don’t think the people like me asking lots of questions. Kizzy gets to do horses for her chores. I don’t have to clean things though because that’s not my job but I don’t know who does it. I miss being at home with you. Here I have to go to school and I’m not clever, not even a little bit. They’re trying to teach me things but they don’t know what I know and I don’t really like it.

They want you to sleep in a bed all the time here and it’s not comfy or sleepy or anything. I fall out a lot but I’m on the bottom so I haven’t died yet.

The other time it was really really snowy outside so all the lights went off and we had to have fire places and play games in the same room and I couldn’t find Kizzy and that was scary but the rest was sort of fun. When the lights went out I got upset so I went under the table like a rabbit and Kizzy brought a torch and a nice boy called Ira came and sat with us, and some more people and we sang a song and roasted imaginary marshmallows and I gave one to a grown up and she didn’t mind, but then we went out and everywhere was cold and dark and I got lost and scared and then they came and found me and the next night we all had to stay in our rooms because they couldn’t find people and there was a fire making fire noises and then the next night we all slept together and that was sort of nice but sort of scary too, because there were lots and lots of people. And we went outside and then people had a snowball fight but I didn’t throw any because I wanted to be good like you said and then we went inside again and the lights came back on.

I miss you lots and I hope you are ok where you are.
Love, Laura

Dear Uncle Kenneth,

I didn’t write for a long time because I didn’t think about it because I don’t really know what happens here lots, and some things are normal and some things aren’t and I’m not sure what is normal and what isn’t.

I tried to be nice with Faith and draw her a picture of tree frogs but she ripped it up and said I was like the other people at the home place said I was that Jenny said it wasn’t nice to call people and then Kizzy came in and said I understood which I sort of did because she was upset and she didn’t like Kizzy being with her friend, which was funny because I thought other people had lots and lots of friends and she said Kizzy was a word it’s not nice to call people and then Kizzy said I should go and sit in the room and I did and she came back later because she said she had to shower because she was doing the horses things.

I drew her a picture and she liked it! She kept it and everything and she said she liked it. It was of a polar bear and a baby polar bear. I miss talking to you and not explaining things. Did you know yeast comes from chickens? Kizzy said so, but only boy chickens. That’s why there aren’t millions and billions of chickens everywhere and we can eat eggs. They only have girl chickens here though. They have cows too, I don’t know if I said. And people get to milk them, but not me. I wash things in the kitchen instead and I always worry that I’m going to drop plates and things and sometimes people get a little frustrated because I move slower than them because I have to be careful of everything.

I hope you’re ok. Do you have chores where you are?

Love,
Laura.

P.S. Here is a drawing of a platypus.