Letters

Letter 15

November 21st, 2004

Dear Dad,

            It’s a Friday again. I’d be excited for the weekend, but I have my English project to do. Richard and Daxus asked if they could come over again. I told them that I had my English project to do and that I couldn’t afford any distractions. Uncle Alex called me right after and asked me if my friends were coming over. I told him the same thing, but he said “Don’t be silly. Your friends could help you out” I didn’t want to argue, so I said okay.

            When we got to Uncle Alex’s house, I suggested doing homework first before we do anything else. Then Daxus stood up in front of me and said “Or, we can do other things besides school related stuff and get back to it later” I looked at Richard and he nodded.

            We sat down in a circle and Daxus wanted to start the conversation. He said “So, what’s the deal with life?”

            Richard looked at Daxus and said, “My parents said God created life, but eh”

            The doorbell rang and Uncle Alex Appeared behind us walking to the front door with his wallet in his hand. He came back holding two pizza boxes and handed Richard one. He took the other box up to his room. I took a slice and Daxus asked me what my uncle does the whole time while they’re over. I told him that he’s just stuck in his studio drawing, writing, or composing music, but he never shares them with me. I told them that he wanted to be an artist, an animator, an author, or even a musician. I told them that he has good enough grades to attend to any college that he wanted. He graduated from a normal college, but he couldn’t pursue his dreams because nobody understood his works, kinda like Van Gogh when people told him that his paintings made no sense. Uncle Alex doesn’t let me in his studio though. He told me that he’ll let me in once he’s done with his project. He told me that it was a surprise, but he’s never shown me his previous works, only abstract designs on surfboards.

            I didn’t tell my friends what I think what’s he’s doing though. I just think that he’s trying his best at making something that everyone likes, but he starts over every time and never shares it with anyone. I’m no artist, but I think everyone’s kinda like this.

            With that in my mind, I asked Daxus what it was like to be an artist in his old school. He said that everyone was jealous of each other in the art room. Everyone liked each other’s artworks mainly because they could paint realistically. He said that he personally didn’t like anyone’s paintings because it’s not the type of art that he’s into. He likes semi-abstract art that portrays activism, or street art. Everyone loved his unique style of drawing and painting. He said that he only paints that way because he didn’t know how to blur or shade things without making the entire piece look like a greyish blob.

            Then I asked Richard about his life on an orchard. He said that it was an okay life. He liked taking care of plants and picking out the fruits. He just didn’t like how his parents act. He described them as close minded and ignorant. He gave an example of them believing that rock is the Devil’s music.

            By the time that we finished the pizza, we moved onto homework. I asked Daxus what he wrote for the English project. He said that he didn’t start it. I got really excited because I haven’t started mine either. I said to him, “Oh, then we can start it together” We went through suggesting ideas and Richard pitched in to help us too. We finished our rough draft and none of us knew how to write our final draft. Daxus suggested that we should just type it up on the computer and print it out. He told me that the teacher doesn’t read the rough drafts anyways.

            Before I could get to the computer, Uncle Alex came down and said “It’s sun down, come on, let me drop you guys off” I told him that I’ll stay to finish up my project, which isn’t really a project now that I think about it. Uncle Alex got close to me, “But they’re your friends, not my friends. You gotta be there with them” he said. I felt bad after he said that.

            When we got back from dropping them off at their houses, I got right to typing my project. Halfway through typing it, I decided to take a break. I knocked before entering Uncle Alex’s room. He was watching a movie. “Oh come in Rico, come in” he said. I stood next to him as he sat on his bed. He described the movie to be really happy with really good background music. He said, “It’s amazing how these people react in movies. It’s completely unrealistic. No one would ever act that way”

            “Then why are you watching it?” I asked him.

            “It’s nice to see a world that way” he said in reply.

            Afterwards, I got ready for bed. I saved my project. I’ll continue it later tomorrow.

Your son,

Rico