My Prison Pen Pal

Chapter 4

I waited until Sunday night to write Braden back because there is no post on Sunday so I had more time to write. Currently, I do not have a desk in my apartment and my kitchen counter is dirty from the pasta dinner I just made, so I am sitting on the piano bench with the cover over the piano. If my mother was around right now she'd kill me for using her precious piano as a desk, but there is no way I am writing this letter on the floor. Honestly, I haven't been able to play the piano since she passed. I took piano lessons from my mom for eight years, and won a ton of awards, but now I just cannot bring myself to play. It just feels wrong without her here.

I tap my sheets of notebook paper on the piano to straighten them out. I start to write.

Hi Braden,

So good to hear from you. I really enjoyed your letters and pictures. I put the pictures of you on the bulletin board that has photos of all my family, friends, and Rufus. My week has been pretty good, thank you for asking. Actually, work has been surprisingly busy. Right now, we are in the heart of flu season so there have been lots of appointments made. My guess is that this busy schedule will continue for a couple weeks, so I am mentally preparing myself. As for any crazy patient experiences, so far this week there has been none. Last week though was a whole different story. This one dad and his son came in because the son had the flu. I treated the son in the room, but the dad was staring at me the whole time. Kind of creepy if you ask me. Later that day when I was closing up the clinic for the night, the dad drove back to the clinic and tried to break in while I was cleaning some of the rooms.Thankfully, my coworker Ryan was there and called the police. Poor guy, I think he was just really high or something. 

Anyway, that was my crazy patient experience for this month, hope you enjoyed it :) Usually though, my job is amazing. No complaints. It's cool to hear that you went to UW for college, I have a few coworkers that did pre-med there. The campus is so pretty, especially in the spring when all the cherry blossom trees bloom. I did not attend UW, but I did go to Seattle University for my nursing degree. To think about it, I am surprised we didn't run into each other. We were so close! Your other question was about that photo of me at the bar sipping a martini and smiling. That is my favorite photo because not only was I undeniably happy with my best friend Kiera being with me, but that was the first time I felt confident in myself after my boyfriend of four years cheated on me. That's probably the other emotion you are picking up in the photo. 

Moving on, I think it is so cool that you like to read as well. I like to read mostly fantasy, romance, and sci-fi, but occasionally I read the classics. My favorite classic is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I have probably read that book at least twenty times. I am not sure if you have access to it where you are, so I'll send it to you. Please excuse the notes in the margins, I get a little excited about the story :) I hope you have a good week!

Talk to you soon,

Lucy

I walk into my laundry room that's on the side of the kitchen and pull out a yellow envelope from the bottom drawer. In my room, I walk up to my nightstand where my well-loved To Kill a Mockingbird is placed and I slip it into the envelope. Then I go back to the piano, fold the letter, put it in the envelope, close it, and address it to Brenden Valencia. In his letter he seems so.... Mysterious. I cannot place my finger on it. 

He does not seem like a stereotypical drug addict that I have treated before in school. He has to have some sort of backstory. I know that this Harper Lee book is probably going to not matter to him, but it's important to me. It's really personal to give to him with all the notes in the margins, I still cannot believe I am sending it to him. But somewhere in my gut, I feel comfortable with him. A feeling that I have known him for a long time. On my way to take Rufus out for a night time walk, I drop it off to Kenny at the front desk.