Discovering Me

Something Else

Dinner was weird that night. We sat next to each other mostly in silence.

"There must be something else." I say determined. "Your being extremely quiet and you always make an attempt to start conversation at dinner. So what's up?"

My father sits there silently.

"There is isn't there? Something else happened. What?" I ask again.

My father starts to cry and he excuses himself from the table. Maybe I shouldn't have pushed him that hard. I'll ask tomorrow or maybe I should wait and he'll tell me when he's ready.

I sit there and finish my dinner and then I head upstairs to get ready for bed. I turn the tv on and watch little bits of some movie I didn't even recognize.

I change into my pajamas and sit on the end of my bed and finish the movie which was almost over to begin with.

I start to long for my friends back at the orphanage. I miss Mrs. Collins and Felisha. Then I remember the envelope that Felisha gave me before I left. I walk to my backpack that was still packed from when I left the orphanage. Eventually I will empty it but it still feels too soon. After all the orphanage is a big part of me.

I open my bag and the envelope sits on top. I smile seeing all the stickers and the little writings on the outside of the envelope.

"Here goes nothing." I say aloud.

Opening the envelope slowly, careful not to rip anything I take out the piece of paper. I fold it and begin to read.

'You miss us already? It's ok. I'm sure everything is going good right? If you ever need to write anything and tell somebody, my address is on the front of the envelope among the many stickers and words.

I hope you will use the address to write down everything that has happened. Everything single thing that frustrates you including your feelings and opinions. Then stick that paper in an envelope and stick a stamp on it, to send it my way.

I always need something to look forward to. You should know that too.'

She always knows what to say. I take out one of the memo pads I got before I left and started to write. I wrote about the store and the house and my new room.

The only thing I failed to write about was my mother and my father being my real father and the something else because I wanted to write everything together in an everything else letter.