Searching For Summer

Before June dissolves into July, and as I am scrambling to find a replacement job for the one that imploded on me, another letter from Lady Darley arrives, dated the 25th of June:

Hello Chris,
Thank you for your letter. I wasn't actually sure whose turn it was to write, as it seemed such a long time since I wrote to you. But maybe it was my imagination. Yes I think it was.

[Your friend who told you about me] never really talks to me about herself that much. She only talks about things at school, her friends and studies, but not about her. Maybe that sounds silly because really they are things about herself aren't they?

I gather in my previous letter I grumbled about Kurt, a wise-guy checker and pain in the rear who worked at the Food Barn with me in my previous summer job, one I wasn't going to return to because it siphoned union dues from my already meager paycheck. That same union, by the way, protected his behind.

That guy Kurt you told me about sounds though he wanted to have some authority in your supermarket. To boss somebody about, and to make somebody run errands for them. I try not to to let people like that upset me. But in certain cases, no matter how hard I try it does.

I was fixing to take my ACT college test when last I wrote Lady Darley. A high score would set me up at the University of Missouri with a free ride.

I wish you luck with your exam whenever you take it. I'm sure with the things you've been telling me, you will pass with flying colours. Possibly a top of the class mark. I think it is really good what your education system tries to do for students. Even though our education system does offer grants to schoolchildren I think you get a better chance.

I think I told her I didn't want to flip burgers as I pursued another job.

I don't think I would actually like to work in a hamburger place. I can't explain why. I suppose it's just me. I think my job will end very soon. The lady who owns the cafe has got another job with a catering firm. That's because on the site they decided to open a new restaurant. [The lady] didn't know whether she would have been give the two rooms. So she applied for a new job. When she had been offered the job, the new society offered her the rooms. But she couldn't take them because she'd already accepted her new job. She has two people with a possibility of taking over. One lady only needs one assistant and the other lady needs two. But I was just worried about if the first lady gets it, who will she want, [another worker] or me?

I'd written her before my journey to Boys' State, not knowing what to expect as I prepared to plunge into its one-week journalism program.

This government camp programme you are going on sounds lots of fun. With me being unsure about what I want to do when I leave something like that would help in my decision I expect. Next Thursday at school we are doing a kind of newspaper trial. A few members of our year will type stories into a computer. We get printouts and have to decision which are the most important pieces, then type out a first, second and third page of a made up paper. I'm looking forward to it.

[Alex] is a very nice guy. But he is being very stupid at the moment. A lot of my sister's friends hang around at the 'boat.' Then he goes under a bridge and smokes drugs, which I think is very silly and so do a lot of people who know him. But [Alex] 'can't see the wood for the trees.' That really is a typically English saying and I hope you can understand what it means. But it isn't really that hard to figure out, is it? Let me know how your media/journalism school course went?

She comes back to the burning issue of your humble servant listening to the tapes she had sent to my friend, but her anger has cooled. I hope I apologized in the last letter.

I've explained to [your friend] about the tapes. I hope she understands me. So let's forget about it.

Over and out. And seemingly, so is another photo she sent me.

Well I've scoured round at home and I haven't got the photograph, so I guess it must have got lost in the post. Right now I haven't got one to send you so I've decided to wait till I get my holiday photos back.

At this time, I was dabbling in creative writing, including a novel, and I had sent her the first chapter.

Your first chapter of your book was very good. I found it slight amusing that an American was writing about Russia.

I have actually written two chapters to a start of my novel. But I can't send it to you because it's only just in written out form. I haven't typed it. But it isn't as good as yours anyway. It's about the life of a teenage American girl who has lots of hardships. Her Dad dies, she passes her exams but only to fail her college entrance exam. Sounds pretty bad, don't you think? Well I do anyway?

If I wanted to be cheeky, I could've told her it would make a great American country music song. I didn't.

Next week from July 1st, I go to my old junior school on my work experience. I'm going to help with the little children, paint, draw and read to them. I'm looking forward to working in the school but scared in a way of how the teacher there will react towards me. But I love little children and that's all that matters isn't it?

Well on July 8th, I go on holiday to Italy for 10 days. I'm really look forward to going because hopefully I will come back brown. I normally don't get a suntan after my holiday because we go later on in the year and its normally to Germany. But I hope this time will be different. But I really only want to have fun.

Could you please write me a letter back so I have it by the time I arrive back I have one? Let it get here around either 8th to 18th of June.

Thanks a lot. I hope you manage to write during these dates.

I'll send you a postcard if I remember.

Lots of Love,
[Lady Darley]

P.S. Sorry it's so short but I don't know what to say.

Peace, peace, My Lady. It's not the quantity of your words but the quality!