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Eventually, I broke protocol and entered the padded cell so that we ether in person That’s how taken I ith your ability to breathe life into Shakespeare’s lines

We acted out Haave you started to work--you lost the wild look in your eyes and eventually began to speak to ular at all--you were full ofyou said too, when you finally broke character You said, "Can I take you to dinner so to say, since you were locked up

But I laughed, and you san to tell ain by telling you an to take you out into the world--partly to show my superiors how I had taood of society, but mostly because I was in love with you

As you will learn,the Great War and many of the North American Land Collective leaders owe hiet both of us transferred to Outpost 37 under his command

Once the paperas co study and vitamin Z was introduced successfully into the controlled population, ere flown by helicopter to Outpost 37

My father threw open his arms and said, "Welcoht away, and he presided over our wedding a feeeks later e discovered that I was pregnant

That’s right, Leonard You’ll be hearing frohter next You love S even more than you love me, and I don’t mind that one bit, because I love you both to death

You are a fantastic dad

Fantastic!

And I know that your childhood wasn’t all that great--that you felt a lot of pain, and that you are in a lot of pain right now But h all that so you’ll learn just how i a happy childhood can be, so you will provide one for our daughter

I wish I could send you a video or a picture of you and S playing in the water with Horatio the dolphin If you could see that, you’d know that all of the pain you have to endure to get here, where you are happy in the future, istoo old to be sleeping with us, she still falls asleep with her head on your chest every night You kiss the top of her hair before you hthouse with Dad and me

We send out the beay for twentyThree or so ht back on, after our eyes have just begun to adjust to the dark, you and I always go out onto the observation deck, to search for shooting stars There are a lot these days and we’ve been keeping track of who spots the et to 1,000 each before the year ends, and it’s looking good

And we kiss every ti star too

So we’ve kissed 1,746 times on the observation deck this year alone, and many more times have we kissed elsewhere

I like that you are so affectionate withup for lost time and that you wished we could have met earlier in life, so that ould have been able to spend ood life, Leonard

Hold on

The future is better

We have so hter is beautiful

And my dad becomes a dad to you too--just like you alanted

Just hold on, okay?

Please

Love,

Don’t-You-Dare-Call-Me-Ophelia,

A

FOURTEEN

My friend Baback is of Iranian descent, but when I first met him, he used to tell everyone he was Persian, because ers don’t know that Iran used to be Persia, and h news to hate Iran

Back when he was a freshave Baback some wrinkles and a salt-and-pepper beard he’d look exactly like the current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ah patriotic times like 9/11 anniversaries, and whenever Ahmadinejad made anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American comments, which was all the tiht that Baback definitely could be related to Ahmadinejad, that’s how much he used to look like the Iranian president

I ht after he came to America and ended up in our school For a year I saw hi tiny and terrified, dressed in really forave him a tie, he’d be a prep school kid in a uniforer than hi this violin case--like everywhere he went He wouldn’t leave it in a locker, except during gyether as sopho floor hockey and our teacher Mr Austin got called away on some sort of business for ten minutes Baback and I were on the sa all that y everyone else chase and slap at a little orange ball

Asher Beal was on the other teaer in the gyht between the eyes Baback blinked a few tih, but I could tell that Baback was actually hurt so I didn’t laugh I re hot, like my face was on fire, because I already wanted to kill Asher Beal back then, but I still thought Ihis execution, well not consciously anyway

I saw all of the stupid &uulances and then they all started to smile in this really creepy way It was almost like they were a flock of evil birds or a school of evil fish, because they all instinctively reacted in unison without even talking