-Ruby

From: [email protected]

Date: November 21, 2008 12:41 p.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: RE: I’m sorry

Living on your own is different than living with your family, Ruby. If you’re not happy… you should look into getting your own place, maybe with a friend. It’s your life.

-A

From: [email protected]

Date: November 22, 2008 2:08 a.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: RE: RE: I’m sorry

It isn’t that I’m unhappy, I’m not. I am happy, but… sometimes it’d be nice to leave the house and not have my mom still treat me like I’m 16 when I’m not home by midnight (I’m exaggerating. She only calls if I’m not home by 2). I know she means well, but every once in a while it gets to me. They’re all overprotective. I’m grateful. I shouldn’t make it seem like it’s a burden.

Anyway, can we start over?

-Ruby

From: [email protected]

Date: November 23, 2008 11:41 a.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: RE: RE: RE: I’m sorry

I’ll let it go, but all I’m saying is, it’s your life. Do what you want with it. If that’s living at home or not. My dad didn’t want me joining the army, but I did it anyway because I wanted to.

We can start over.

-A

From: [email protected]

Date: November 23, 2008 11:51 a.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: Hi

Ruby,

I didn’t know the soldier who died, still sucks… leaves a knot in my chest because it could happen to anyone at any time.

The tent situation here isn’t too bad. There are twenty men in each. The best part is we have AC. It gets hot here… about 130 degrees during the summer. We’re in the desert, but in the winter it’s still warm during the day and gets cool at night. I’ve done deployments early on in the war without AC… it’s a blessing.

The mosquitoes are the worst. They’re smarter than the ones back home. We’ve had hours-long conversations about them here. We have mosquito nets, but they crawl under them to get inside. They know how to do it. The mice can get bad, but a lot of us try to be careful. Where there are mice, there are snakes, and I don’t care what anybody says, you don’t want a snake hanging around. I check my bed every night.

You are a dork, but it’s cute you notice things like costumes and get excited about them. I get what you mean, but for me it’s the other way around. I can’t enjoy war movies anymore. I criticize everything in them.

Scout’s honor, no matter how good-looking your mom is, I won’t try and steal her away from #4.

All three of us are friends. Max, the one I’ve known since high school, works at a refinery. Des, the one I’ve been friends with since middle school, is a firefighter.

I’ve seen The Fifth Element. Give me some credit. What costumes did you do? I had this thing for Mila in that orange outfit for the longest. What belt did you have in aikido?

Festivals in Germany are insane. I don’t have any pictures with me, but imagine a ton of people and then multiply it by three.

We were “together” two years, but we probably only spent maybe two months of that face to face… saying two months is a stretch too, I bet. I had a tour in Italy for a year, and before that she didn’t live anywhere near where I was. We met through a friend of a friend when she visited base. It wasn’t anything that serious, but….

I’m not going to say you’re right about me choosing to date them. :] I’ve only had my car keyed once when I was twenty and had a couple of exes who were borderline stalkers. I feel his pain.

…what did you mean by you’ve “never had a boyfriend”?

Hope you’re okay too.

-Aaron

P.S. Does this count as starting over? :] We can pretend I’ve always known the truth.

From: [email protected]

Date: November 24, 2008 1:11 a.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: RE: Hi

Aaron,

Mosquitoes that know how to get under nets? Mice and snakes? How can I say this? No thank you? You would think, because of Sylvester, I’d be okay with mice, but that is a negative. Snakes? No way, Jose. I feel stupid, but I didn’t put two and two together and figure that it would get cold in the winter on that side of the world. You think “desert” and think “hot” and “dehydration,” not jacket weather.

I’m attaching a picture of my mom and #4 from our trip to Orlando a few months ago when I sent you the Disney postcard. Don’t make me regret it. ;)

Do your friends still live in Louisiana?

You’ll be happy to hear I did a Leeloo costume—that’s Mila’s character. I still have the wig and everything. I’ve also done Diva Plavalaguna, the opera singer. The makeup took a stupid amount of time to do, but it came out well. I only got my yellow belt in aikido.