Her name is Sasha.
She’s a model, and she’s sweet. She’s really, really sweet. She’s an awful singer and a worse dancer, but she laughs, which is more than I can say for most people I’ve met along this journey.
I don’t know why I felt the need to tell you, but I thought you should hear it from me first, instead of the tabloids.
-Brooks
P.S. I reread The Kite Runner. It was the first book you ever gave me, remember? I don’t remember crying the first time I read it, but maybe time changes the way we view stories. Maybe as we grow, life experiences shift the meanings of the books. Maybe I’m not the same person I was those years ago when I read it.
Or maybe I’m just homesick.
April 8th, 2026 — Twenty-Eight Years Old
Each night, Mama, Daddy, and I ate dinner together at the dining room table. Mama and Daddy hardly ever looked at each other. They walked past one another like strangers.
Daddy hardly made any jokes anymore, and when he did come to my bedroom he complained more about Mama’s drinking.
It was hard to believe they had ever been in love. It was hard to imagine how they used to dance.
Still, we ate dinner together each night, even if it was always uncomfortable for everyone. Fridays were my favorite nights, though, because after dinner, Cheryl always called me for a Skype date.
I’d clear my plate and hurry up to my room, eagerly opening my computer. Ever since Cheryl had graduated college, she’d been on a quest to discover the world. She had started backpacking around Europe and Asia, and hadn’t stopped moving since. She’d visited all kinds of places, discovered all kinds of cultures, and witnessed more struggle than she could’ve ever imagined in remote parts of the world that went mostly unnoticed.
She was in Bangkok, Thailand, when she Skyped me that night.
“Hey, sister!” she said, her service not as clear as it had been a week before, but seeing her face at all still made me happy. “You’re looking good.”
I smiled and typed back to her. Ditto.
“So, today I went to see Phra Phuttha Maha Suwana Patimakon. I bet I pronounced that wrong, because when I said it earlier my tour guide told me I totally butchered the pronunciation, but oh well. It’s that big Golden Buddha, ya know? It was amazing, too. Oh!” She shifted around her small hostel room and pulled out a book. “And I got you your first book from Thailand! I don’t know what it says per se, but I think it’s a solid one if you know how to read Thai.”
I smiled at my dorky sister. I missed her so much.
Cheryl arched an eyebrow. “So since I’ve been gone have you started talking and cursing like your sailor-mouthed sister?”
I shook my head.
“One day I want you to spread your arms out and shout the loudest fuck that could ever be shouted. It will be refreshing, I think.”
I don’t think so.
She frowned. “It would be better if you were a bit more messed up. Less perfect, you know? I mean, I know you’ve got that mute thing, and the can’t-leave-home issue, but those seem small compared to my being a single female and running around the dangerous world alone. You really make it hard to be your sibling.”
I smirked. Sorry.
She snickered. “No you’re not. Anyway, how are classes going?”
I’d been taking online classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I’d received an undergraduate degree in English. After that, I applied to many different schools that held online Master degrees, yet I wasn’t accepted to any. My rocking résumé probably wasn’t the best, seeing how I hadn’t done much of anything with my life.
It was a year ago when I was ready to give up, but Daddy convinced me to apply at UW-Milwaukee for their Master of Library & Information Science. When I was accepted to their online program, I cried.
Mama said it was a waste of time and money. Daddy said it was a step closer to my happy ending.
School is going well. The semester is almost over, which is good.
“Do you like, flirt with any of your classmates on the discussion boards?” Cheryl asked, her voice heightened.
I rolled my eyes, even though she was quite serious. Cheryl once tried to convince me to fall in love online. She even signed me up on a few dating sites.