From: Lucas Garver >

To: Bailey Prescott >

__________________________________________________________

Family Fun Movie Recommendations

July 18, 2012 at 11:53 PM

__________________________________________________________

Dear Bailey,

I'm sorry it's been a few day since I last wrote you. Turns out it takes a lot of alcohol to sort though old boxes. I also had to track down my phone charger before I could email you. Not excuses, just information. I'm sitting here thinking how nice it would be to be watching Toy Story with you instead of sorting through years of memories. Good and bad.

I cheated and looked ahead at the end of your story so that I could see if it will be worth the wait for you...I don't want to give away any spoilers, but let's just say I didn't even know that was humanly possible. Are people really into that kind of stuff? Meanwhile in my story, the spaceship just landed on another planet. The crew inside made it for the most part—one guy had to be killed on the trip, but they of course cryogenically froze his body so they can bring him to justice when they get back to their home planet. Anyway, they just discovered something that looked like a footprint on the surface of the far ways planet. That's weird since humanity was almost killed off in the Great Galaxy War nearly one thousand years ago. So the crew....they huddle together with their one weapon and hike up the closest hill only to discover....I have no idea. Maybe you could read ahead and let me know what happens.

Do you ever wonder what would have happened if your dad never left? Do you think your parents would be happy? Would you be? Tonight I wondered what would have happened if my dad never left. I can't even picture it because my mom never remarried or even dated so I have no idea what it's like to have a "dad." So I decided instead that maybe I'd wonder what would have happened if my mom never got cancer. We never would have spent all that money, I would have never had to take care of her or drive her to chemo. I wouldn't know what it's like to make a decision about who would have me when she passed. I wouldn't have had to pack up my little brother and send him off to a small town in Texas because there was no way I could keep him with me. I was a kid—am a kid, myself. Maybe I'd even be eating that cheesy casserole tonight at a table with my mother instead of just running my fingers across her slanted writing in her old notebook where she wrote her recipes.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet with my grandma's lawyer and a realtor and put her house on the market. I remember the day my grandpa had paid off the mortgage. He called my mother and told her we needed to come over for dinner to celebrate. It's going to be hard to see the house go, but I'm secretly hoping some young family will want it. It just seems like it will sting less if I can picture another family getting to live there.

Got to go. I still have boxes to sort and this alcohol isn't going to drink itself.

Love,

Lucas

P.S. I sent you a gift card on Amazon. It isn't much, but it will buy you a new movie for your sisters to watch. I recommend Full Metal Jacket of course.

Five Fun Facts about Lucas

1. My middle name is the same as a Greek God.

2. I don't tell anyone my middle name.

3. I only eat the crème out of the middle of the Oreos.

4. I think girls who wear glasses are sexy.

5. I could tell you the major plot lines of one of the oldest soap operas because my grandma used to make me watch it with her. Don't ever try to hide a pregnancy, marry your father's cousin's daughter's aunt, or kill an old lady for money and get away with it...because I'll know. I've studied that guilty soap opera stare for years.