December 30

Dear Eliza*Beth,

I just received your letter. Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! First, I want to thank you for your presents. I know how hard you worked on them. The books are wonderful. The blank one, for me to do creative writing in, has a terrific cover. (You know how much I love rainbows.) I will write in it as soon as I have time, when the play is finished…. And the book with the pictures of the kittens on the cover, the one filled with your poetry, took so much work. The poetry is really amazing!!! Gadzooks!!! You sure have been writing a lot lately. (I only wish that it was happier.) Please tell Emma that I LOVE the yarn octopus that she made. (Don’t tell her that one of the wiggly eyes fell off.) Tell her that I named it Emmapuss. (Emmapus sounded too gross!!!!) Barb loves her present. It must have taken you ages to cross-stitch that house with HOME SWEET HOME under it. Barb said that it was so thoughtful of you to make it for our future home (owned). We now have it hung up in this apartment (rented) and think of you whenever we look at it. (You know that we think of you at other times too.)

Christmas this year was wonderful. (I wish that yours was better.) I got clothes, especially this one dress that I’ve been craving to wear to the New Year’s Eve party. I also got some scarves (one with glitter), a pair of glitter socks, and a pair of beaded sneakers … also some really cool earrings (one pair of dream catchers, one of peacock feathers, one frowny face — to make fun of the smiley face ones). My other big present was that Barb and Luke had given me some money early so I could buy those presents for you and Emma. (That made me so happy. I can baby-sit and stuff once the play is over but until then I’m low on money.) Barb and Luke took the money that they would have used on presents for each other and put it in their special “house savings account” … and there is no “baby savings account”!!!! I really don’t think that’s going to happen. Anyway, I like being an only child. Oh … and when they went out shopping for my presents, they saw and bought a pair of candlesticks. (They each wrapped and gave one to the other, along with candles.) They’re putting the candlesticks away until we get a house and then we’ll light the candles to celebrate.

As for your Christmas … gadzooks!!!!!! Are you sure that the jewels are real? Maybe now that your dad is home all day, he’s been watching one of those television shopping stations and he bought the make-believe stuff. (Even that isn’t always inexpensive.)

I can’t figure out your finances either. I really did think your family was going to need food stamps. (Remember when my family needed them? It was, okay, a little embarrassing, but they really helped.) Somehow (don’t get angry when I say this), I can’t visualize your mom in the grocery line, wearing that jewelry and paying with food stamps. Your family must have money saved. (You know that your father and I don’t like each other, but I don’t think he’s a thief.) I remember that you said your father grew up poor, but your mom’s family has lots of money (don’t they?) and maybe they gave your family some of it.

It is a good idea to talk to your mom about this … and maybe she’ll know how to return some of the stuff. (A diamond bracelet for someone our age seems weird.)

Personally, I think you should return the Barbie stuff. You know Barbies make me puke.

As for my life, you asked, so I’ll tell you. IT’s REALLY REALLY GOOD. (I wish your life was too.) The play is fun. I’ve met soooooo many people because of it. One of them is Hannah. (She’s my Ohio best friend. You’d like her. She’s fun. She’s smart. She wants to be a writer — and an actress.) I love that her name spelled backward is the same as when it’s spelled forward, a palindrome. I started calling her Pal Indrome. Now it’s her new nickname. Everyone in our group calls her “Pal.”

There are a lot of other kids that I’ll tell you about in another letter. Right now I want to talk about ALEX. Remember him???? He’s now my BOYFRIEND!!!! (Remember how we always talked about what it would be like to have a boyfriend? Well, it’s great.) He’s so much fun … he’s soooooooo cute … and he’s a really good kisser. (I found that out when we went to the movies last week.)

Of course the only other boy I ever kissed was Dwight Jones (in the third grade … he slugged me after I kissed him … that certainly stopped me for a long time!!!!). Well, this time I got kissed first, and it sure was nice (even though my lip got a little scratched by his braces once).

Oh, Eliza*Beth … I only wish you could be as happy as I am right now…. I also wish we could see each other every day like we used to be able to do. There’s no one in the world who knows me as well … who knows what my life has always been like…. In some ways that’s good. Here no one knows about my family’s really poor, really rough times. You know more about me than anyone else does … only with you could I really talk about the changes, how even though they are so good — sometimes I’m scared that they’ll go away.

I miss you.

I wish you a happy new year (well, at least a happier one).

Love,