Susana

11 February 1989

Dear Susana,

Your letter of 21 January arrived today and I was happy to get it. I thought you had given up on me so it came as an added surprise when I got it.

Yes Susana, I have traveled a great deal and it sometimes was very difficult leaving a place or my friends. I have been doing it for much of my life so have become used to the idea of making new friends in a new location. Unfortunately, I did not keep in touch with my old friends and it is not until now, in my later years, that I have the time and desire to correspond with them. They are spread all over the world by now (most of them were military dependents) and we have lost touch. That is why I have tried to re establish ties with old friends in a civilian school such as Central Falls High School. It stands to reason that they will not have gone so far a-field.

Your first letter sounded so positive about you going back to Portugal this year, but this one sounds like you have some doubts that you will. Do you have a choice in the matter? Since your parents are separated, I make the assumption that you are with your mother (correct me if I'm wrong). Have you talked with her of your feelings about returning to Portugal? Perhaps if she knows how you feel and how important your school and friends are to you, she will consider letting you stay in school at Central Falls. This might be especially true if she intends to return later. If you have a good rapport with her, it might be worth discussing.

You are correct when you say I might have found some of my secret loves felt the same about me if I had told them. Considering how bashful I was though, that was an impossibility at the time. As I stated in my first letter to you, I kept waiting for them to say something first; dumb me, huh?

I'm happy to see you are not plagued by bashfulness anyway. Jules is not one of the persons who wrote me. I've gone through all my letters twice and have none from him. That doesn't surprise me though. I'll bet there are others who didn't write also. I hope you and he are happy together. Be nice to each other as long as it last but do be aware that you will probably have many "loves" during your teen years. They will all be special and you will mature a little bit more with each passing relationship. Such is life.

Susana, please do keep writing to me. I enjoy getting letters and I do love to write. Maybe I get a bit verbose from time to time but you can chalk that up to old age and have pity on this one fault of mine. You see, age has made me less bashful about asking girls for favors.

Your friend,

John