Letters for Sally

Ch 1 and 2

Chapter 1
Sally was a tall, charming young lady. Most everyone loved her and her smile could light up a dark room. She was almost 17 but she had not dated any boys yet. She really felt that it was wise to take her mother's advice and work on becoming the perfect wife and mother rather than working on finding the perfect guy at her age. She knew she wanted a guy who loved Jesus like she did but she also knew that whoever that was, was not hers yet. Her only job as a teenager was to love, honor and respect her mother and work on herself and her school work. She was a practical, and hardworking person and even with all her wealth and privileges she knew nothing was free and that she needed to do her best in every way in life.

Her long blond hair rested right above her waist and her deep blue eyes sparkled when she laughed. She loved wearing high heels and walking upright with posture that expressed confidence and a brave humility. She loved politics, history, and city life. She enjoyed shopping but did not buy into the lifestyle of being over excessive with material things. She had plenty of clothes in style and color but she wore each piece and didn't buy new things just to make herself feel better, as her friends often did. Her mother taught her that if she would manage her pennies the dollars would take care of themselves and over excessive buying often was a result of feeling bored or empty inside. Her mother would say, "We must take time to look inside ourselves and see what we feel, why we feel it and ask how we should deal with it in a healthy God like manner." That kind of teaching resonated with her. Her mother practiced what she preached and that made Sally desire to walk in her foot steps even more. Her mother had been single ever since her father had passed away when she was three years old. Her mother loved her dad she could tell by the way she spoke about their life together before she was born and how much of a wonderful father he was to her before he died. He was still providing and protecting both her and her mother still today after being dead for 13 years. He had left many already successful hotels behind for them to live off the income. She had trusts and they had enough money in the bank, interest, and money-making property to take care of 10 families that would be considered wealthy by American standards. Her father knew he was going to die and had time to write letters to both her mother and Sally. Her father had a letter for each special occasion and all of her birthdays and Christmases. He had taken months and wrote to them both so that they would have his words as they moved on with life. He encouraged them to seek the Lord for peace and strength and to pray continually. He would remind them that he loved them and to keep moving forward in life and not stay in sadness and anger over his death. He often reminded his wife that it was ok to move on and remarry if she found someone to love. He even studied the grieving process and taught her mother with letters she had to open at certain times during the first year after he had died.

Her mother had mourned her father over the years. It was evident that he had stolen her mother's heart and their love story was one of those love at first sight, always in love, always best friends, kind of love stories you read about in books. They adored, respected and enjoyed each other and her mother was content alone because she was made whole by only two men, Jesus and Sally's father. It seemed no other man could or would ever be able to stand up to the standards Sally's father held in her mother's heart and mind. Her mother was content, happy, at peace and joyful so Sally assumed that was perfect for her momma and if it was perfect for her mother she would find peace in that too.

Sally wasn't an overly emotional girl compared to her other friends her same age. She struggled with hormones and even monthly pain and frustration like all girls but her mother taught her to always feel but never let feelings control her. The feelings were hers to own and not the other way around. It was a lesson she often had to go back to but keeping her feelings and emotions in check was a much more peaceful way to live and she knew it. She had lost her temper, allowed sadness to take over her thoughts, and in forgiveness/bitterness had taken a place in her world enough to know that wasn't the way she wanted to live. She knew finding balance would be difficult. She knew that it could be easy to just stuff feelings and emotions deep inside and ignore them and just not feel them so she kept herself in check with journals, books, and talking to her mom.

One of her dreams was to bring Jesus back into politics. She wouldn't push the Bible off on people like the far right does but she also couldn't stand back and watch the far left takeover and impose immoral behavior unto American people. She knew the answer to politics was loving God and others. She knew bringing God Into politics would never work for the left. She knew the truth and peace was somewhere in the middle of the two sides. However, in her short lifetime she had only seen the gap widen and the extremes become more extreme and polarized. She wasn't sure how to get a third party to rise up strong enough to change all that but she was young and determined to at least try.

Chapter 2
The sun beams shone brightly through the tall window in Sally's well kept room. She could feel the warmth and Beauty of a new day shining on her face. She stretched her arms high in the air as she slowly moved her legs to the edge of the bed. She was well rested, her bed was the perfect softness to support her body while still feeling like she was laying on a bed of clouds. She was feeling very ready for her day as she walked over to her private bathroom inside of her room. She brushed her perfectly aligned, white, teeth and brushed her long blond hair. She put some black mascara on her long eyelashes and then some soft pink lip gloss on her perfectly shaped pouty lips.

Her father had left her and her mother all of his estate and had the entire top floor turned into their personal living quarters before he had died of lung cancer. She had a suite with a walk in closet, full jacuzzi tub, and an area for a desk to study. Her mother and her shared a living area and the apartment had a kitchen and large dining area. She had a full balcony that gave her and her mother a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty. Sally walked into the dining area where the smell of bacon, biscuits and gravy filled her senses. She knew it would be good their cook was the best in town and he was one of the sweetest men she knew. She poked her head in the kitchen smiling from ear to ear, "Good morning Roger, how is my favorite cook this fine morning?". Roger smiled back and nodded his head and blew her a kiss. As she surveyed the buffet table her nose picked up a new scent as her eyes glazed over toward the golden, juicy pineapple, the sweetness filled her nostrils as her mouth began to water. She looked toward heaven and said a quick prayer under breathe, "Thank you Jesus. I know I am blessed and you're the reason." She quickly sat down and had her breakfast and then quickly went into the living area to gather her school items and items needed for her day. She carefully placed all her notebooks in her binder based on class order and then picked up the laptop she had put her PowerPoint presentation on for the project she had been working on for the last three weeks at school. Her eyes saw a picture book out on the table of her father and mother's wedding day. It made her wonder for just a moment if she had any real memories of her father or if the memories were all from pictures and her mother's stories. She felt like she knew her father because of all the letters she had left behind but she often wondered if she had any real memories from when she was two and three years old.

She made it to class several minutes early which allowed her to sit down and look over her notes for her big project. She was scheduled to present today and she was ready. Well, she was ready except for her incredibly shy personality. Yes, she studied. She knew her stuff she had always done very well in school. She loved to learn and she loved to share with her mother about all she had learned both in school and on her own from being an avid reader but getting up in front of people made her heart sink and her tummy feel like busy bees. She started to feel panic as she looked at the front of the room. Her teacher walked in smiling and gave her a nod. Sally quickly felt worse, "how am I going to do this?" she whispered under her half-smile. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and said a prayer in her head, "Jesus calm me, give me peace, fill in my blanks and I will be ok." She immediately felt better. She took a few good breaths, opened her eyes and looked up with a bright smile. She knew deep inside she could do this and do it well and she didn't have anything to worry about.

The door of the classroom opened wide and a tall, slender woman with short brown hair looked inside of the doorway. Sally was pretty sure she had an office in the main office of the school and she thought she may have been the counselor but she had never spoken to her before, so she wasn't sure. The woman asked her teacher if Sally could come to the office with her. Sally's heart dropped again. "What could I possibly have done wrong?", she thought to herself. She figured it was nothing, maybe she needed to pay a fee or maybe someone had complained about her. As Sally walked into the tall woman's office the lady held her arm out toward the extra chair in the office. What could be wrong?! I make good grades, I don't have enemies, I am kind, I am sure there is a mistake!", she thought to herself as she situated herself and crossed her legs and put her arms in her lap to give this woman her full attention in a respectable way.