I’m keeping the mosquitoes fed and Ax is keeping the mice away. She tries to play with them.

-Aaron

P.S. Stress isn’t good for you recovering. Just saying.

From: [email protected]

Date: February 9, 2009 11:11 p.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: How did you do tours without my e-mails? Kidding.

Aaron,

I’m sorry for not telling you everything. It’s a touchy subject. I guess I just didn’t want you to think of me any differently. Not that you would, but… I’m sorry. I had no right to expect that. If you were the one who’d had surgery, I would want to know everything too.

Here’s the story. I used to get dizzy and lightheaded when I was younger, and my heart would start beating really fast. I didn’t say anything for a while. Young and dumb, I know you know what I mean. :) I finally told my mom one day about it, and they took me to the doctor and did some tests. You’re not supposed to feel that way when you’re a kid, apparently. It turned out I have this syndrome called Wolff-Parkinson-White. To make a long story short, I had an extra electrical pathway between the upper and lower chambers of my heart. There’s a node that’s bypassed because of the pathway and it caused my heart to beat fast. I took a beta blocker for a while to deal with it, but a few years ago, I had surgery to fix it. Everything went fine. I’m okay. I should be okay from now on. My mom blamed herself for not knowing. Remember I told you her mom died before I was born? She had sudden cardiac death and the doctors think she might have had the same thing as me and never got treated for it. That’s why they all freak out over my health, even if it isn’t anything to do with the old ticker.

I hope you didn’t fall asleep reading that.

My mom and her husband have been taking turns coming home on their lunch break to check on me. I swear she takes better care of me now than she did when I was little (before my heart thing). She’d make me go to school even if I had something contagious back then. You’ll be happy to know I made it through a grocery shopping trip and only felt like dying the last half of it.

Pizzas and books. You got it. All romance. Lol.

(I know you’re messing with me. I think you’d miss me for the rest of your deployment if I wasn’t around, see the subject line.)

I guess the aircrafts don’t ever let you forget where you are, huh?

I have some money saved. I’ve been reinvesting most of it into ads in magazines and a couple of websites, and more expensive materials to work on. If I needed money bad enough, I could ask my mom or oldest brother, Sebastian. They’d let me borrow it with only a few snarky comments. The rude parents I can handle, but my aunt with the bridal shop is a different story. I got a voice mail from her the day before yesterday that made me cry. I couldn’t tell my mom or my dad (his sister) because they would’ve lost it. She pretty much told me she was going to be broke this month because I hadn’t finished the dresses she needed. I feel bad, but it wasn’t like I got sick on purpose.

I just thought about it, can’t you get malaria from mosquitoes?

Have you heard from your friends lately?

I want to ask about your leave, but since you haven’t brought it up again, I’m worried it didn’t work out.

-Ruby

P.S. I’m eating more. I’ve gained three pounds back.

P.P.S While I’ve been busy coming back from the brink of death, I started signing up for this dating website. I haven’t hit publish on my profile, but I will soon. Baby steps.

P.P.P.S. Sorry for being such a Debbie Downer this e-mail.

From: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2009 4:17 a.m.

To: [email protected]

Subject: We’ll go with that.

Ruby,

You know your heart is the most important part of your body, don’t you? I get why you didn’t want to tell me, but I’m not going to treat you any different. Mostly :] I get your family being overprotective even more now. Your grandma dying from a heart problem doesn’t help anything either. What kind of surgery did you have to fix it?

Were you faking being sick when you were a kid and that’s why she made you go to school? Or did you genuinely feel bad?

I got this feeling I’d miss your e-mails even if I wasn’t on deployment.

No, you never forget where you are with Apaches flying overhead at all hours of the day.

I hope you don’t have to ask them for money, but I’m glad you have people you can reach out to for it. About your aunt… didn’t you tell me that she used to make those wedding dresses herself? Why didn’t she work on them while you were sick? I don’t know anything about the dress industry, but I know if someone couldn’t come into work at my dad’s business, he would pitch in. Don’t let her get to you. It sounds like she made a bad decision and wants to blame you for it. She isn’t worth crying over, Ru. Some people you can never make happy no matter how hard you try.

My first time in Iraq, they made us take anti-malaria pills that gave everybody messed-up dreams and constipation. Now they figured out it isn’t a big deal here, so we’re good. Mosquitoes are just annoying.