How are you doing? Emily came over soon after I wrote to you. We went to a lantern festival that night. Both Mom and Aaron made lanterns for it. It was very hippie, but it’s always nice to walk around. The next day, we both went into town and meandered around the different shops. There are candles to smell everywhere if you look for them.
I’ve attempted to send a letter to Mom (Mel) asking for college support through the Oregon-child-care-nightmare-system. I sent it while Mom was working. I wrote our return address on the letter (since I thought you have to do that) and she freaked out since she thinks Mom might come try to kill us or something. I feel really, really bad. Apparently it might not go through anyway since it was a small envelope and I put too much paper in it. Enclosed (aside from documents) are a letter to Mom and two portraits for you, the ones I made for your fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays. So that’s a whole thing now, too. Things are mostly back to normal, but I feel really guilty. I did not think Mom would try to kill us; I thought that the whole point was that she wanted nothing to do with us. I hope if you’re reading this, you’re thinking to yourself, ‘probably not’. You know her better than I do. All I was trying to do was help out and not bother Mom much with it. It feels awful. I suppose Mom might ignore the letter altogether. I’m trying to work it out.
On better things, one of my friends came over yesterday and we did some chalk art. The cats were having Supervised Outdoor Time, and Paris rolled around on the chalk. Look how cute he is.
I love you. Know that I’m always trying my best for us even when I’m fumbling like I did a few days ago. I want to always be somewhere safe for you.
With love,
Alice