What if...

March 11, 2012

Dear mom,

The camps aren’t so bad, as you’d expect. They have computers, just no Internet. And it’ll cost you a half of a sandwich to print anything out. But the guys here are nice, nicer than you’d expect. And at least the money I’m making will help the rest of you out. I just hate that I can’t speak any Chinese.
Classes are OK too- but I never thought high school would start out this way. Stuck working here, making toys for kids in the rest of the world. I wish I could meet a girl though, this camp is full of guys. I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but hey- who else am I going to tell, huh mom?
We get about a half hour a day to talk with each other. The guards don’t understand much English, so they yell at us in whatever it is they’re speaking. I don’t even know if it’s Chinese or Japanese or what. One guy told me we would have to learn their language soon to make it anywhere.
I got lucky though. My supervisor is new, and he seems to be more tolerant of errors. He speaks English too, used to be in my position. I just hope that I can get a promotion before I wind up dead from some disease. They tell us to stay away from the tent full of sick people.
I’d tell you more, but they sometimes read our letters and I don’t want to disobey their orders.
There’s talk of them giving us a TV, but only for videos they want to show us. Right now they show some type of Asian movie every Friday. Or Saturday. I’m not really sure of the date anymore. I kind of guessed when I wrote it on the top of the letter.
I do know it’s March at least. Weather tells us that it’s spring. And that means it’ll soon be summer and we’ll have to work all day and not worry about school too much. And we get to come visit our homes, if we can afford it. There’s talk of them making it a whole week without being fed to allow you to go home.
I hope you get the money I included. Tell David, he owes me one for his braces. Even if they’re huge and ugly. And tell the rest of the family I love them, and hope to see them soon. I really do.

Sincerely,

Greg










September 23, 2013

Dear John,

I can’t believe I’m handwriting a letter to you instead of email. This just seems such an old way to do things. But I just don’t have the money anymore for Internet. I can’t believe that stamps cost so much though! Almost a dollar just for one. I remember getting them for a lot less as a kid.
How have you been though? I think the last thing I told you was my Internet was getting cut off. Nothing new in my life really. Just having to work a lot, and I mean a lot. I’ve got three jobs now! All of them suck too. I just wish you were here so it’d be easier.
I still have my job as a waitress, but now I work weekends at a grocery store and the mornings as a receptionist. They don’t pay enough to keep me and my kid going, but I have to do something. I hope you can come visit soon, maybe even move here. I miss talking to you is all. And our phone is cut off too, but you knew that. It was cut off way before the Internet was lol.
I know we met on a dating website and all, but I feel like we really connected. There’s something that we just had, you know? It was special. And I just wish you could be here so I can experience that again. So we can!
I’m blabbering on now. I have to get going, I wish I could write more to you, tell you everything I feel but the people that keep coming in may see me writing this. I just have to get back to work.
Love you.

Sincerely,

Vanessa



















February 1, 2014

Dear Abbie,

Happy birthday sweetheart! I can’t believe you’re already five years old and starting school soon. Daddy wishes he could come back home, but you know he can’t. Not since all the bad men blame daddy for what’s going on now.
I’m going to see if you can’t come down here to visit daddy on the island here. Mommy knows which island it is, but we can’t tell you. The bad men might try to find you and kidnap you. And we wouldn’t want that.
Mommy told me you were going to start school soon. So make sure you be nice to the other kids, because they might not have the kind of things you have. Don’t go around telling them who your daddy is either, we wouldn’t want people to not like you because of me. If they ask, just tell them your daddy is always away on business and you don’t remember his first name.
Or tell them his name is Frank. Just Frank.
I know we’ve only talked a few times, but I love you Abbie. I wish things didn’t happen like they happened. I know Mommy might not read this to you, word for word, but know that with all my heart I really do love you. I just hate what I did. I made a mistake, and I hope you can forgive daddy for that.
I hope everyone can forgive daddy and that one day mommy and you and I can be together again. I miss you both so much. But what can you do when you’re at the top of a business and it’s going to crash anyways? It’s why you have what you have.
I know you don’t understand, and I don’t expect you to. Just understand that I love you, and miss you and want to see you very very soon.
Make sure you keep on feeding Mr. Gibbles. Mommy sent me a picture and he’s gotten so big! Just like you have.

Love,

Daddy