Mr.
Kyle Smith 100 Chestnut Street London, MA 02799 |
July
2, 2009 Dear Mr. Kyle Smith: This feels very weird. I think maybe I'm going crazy. I'm getting thoughts from your head, all the time. I told my sister and she just laughed at me, saying I was too old for make believe like that. My sister likes me and is usually willing to listen, so if she laughs at me I know I can't tell anybody else. So when you put your return address on that letter you sent I quick wrote it down and thought I'd mail a letter to see if you are real. Maybe I'm just writing to myself and it will never get to you because you don't exist. If you're a real person, please stop putting thoughts in my head! I don't know how you're doing it, but I don't like it very much at all. I like having my own thoughts, thank you very much. I'm very different from you and you have thoughts that aren't right for me. So stop it! Sarah |
July
5, 2009 Dear Mr. Smith: I didn't like some of the thoughts you had when you read my letter. Not at all. I am not some old friend who is playing a joke on you or an old enemy trying to bug you. I have never met you and I don't want to meet you! But you did have a thought that helped me. You wondered what it would be like to be a mind-reader -- not that you believe it's possible, but you were thinking of science fiction. You decided you could convince yourself it was real if you got thoughts you never could get any other way. Then you thought of the dynasties in ancient China that you made a point of remembering from college for some reason. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and they were right, except one was missing, but probably I remembered it wrong or you did. I've never studied Chinese history. I can't be getting new facts in my head just from being crazy, right? I really am getting your thoughts! That convinces me. But I can prove it to you too. It's not just your thoughts about Chinese history that I know. I'll write down your thoughts right now: You're watching a baseball game and the team you like is losing. You are a Yankees fan but here in Boston it's not good to tell people that, so you don't. And Boston is winning, 8-0. You realize you can smell your underarm odor (blech!) and ought to take a shower but you know you won't be with anybody soon, so why bother. When that ad comes on for the Volkswagen, you think the girl is ugly even though you know most people must think she is sexy. She reminds you of that girl Jean from high school. And now you're going to get another beer, Coors. See, I do know what you think. No one else could know that, right? So if you were trying to give me thoughts, you have succeeded. Now will you please, please get your thoughts out of my head! I don't like lots of them and I want my head back to myself, OK? Sarah |
July
7, 2009 Mr. Smith: No! Ouch! Thoughts like that are worse! I don't want to feel you feel frightened and angry like that! I'm trying to think how I can help you have more normal thoughts again, but I don't know how. You're not going crazy, really, so you can calm down. I didn't like having your thoughts before, but now I really hate it because they're so scared. When you think maybe you're not crazy, and think maybe it's real, you're mad at me like it's my fault. Like I'm trying to make you miserable. But it wasn't my idea! I just wrote because I wanted to get you to stop putting thoughts in my head. Since you're so scared and feeling crazy, I'm so so glad I didn't tell you who I was. I almost just mentioned it because I assumed you must know. But now I'd be frightened if you knew. It wasn't my idea to know what you were thinking, but now I can see it wasn't your idea either. I wasn't sure before if I was getting all your thoughts, but it really seems like I am. (I wish I wasn't getting some kinds in particular.) But if you were trying to send your thoughts to anyone, I think I would know that, and I don't get thoughts about wanting to send thoughts at all. I can see you don't have any idea who I am. I didn't get that before. All I told you was that I'm an 11-year-old girl, so that's all you know. All you've seen is two letters that came in your mail without return addresses. Everything else is just what you imagine. Sarah |
July
10, 2009 Kyle: OK, I can see that you have tons and tons of questions and can't stand just getting a letter every few days. I see that if you are going to feel calmer about it, then you need to hear from me more often. I'm not sure how to make you feel calmer, but I'll try. Yeah, I'll see if we can do this by email or chat or something. I just have to make sure you can't find out who I am. So, you think gchat will work? OK, you tell me what account you want to use. You hadn't finished figuring out whether you wanted to use the one you had or start a new one. Let me know when you figure it out. Well, that doesn't make sense, does it? When you figure it out I will just know. Sarah |