It has now been three months since I left for college. I have been remiss in
writing and I am very sorry for my thoughtlessness. I will bring you up to
date now, but before you read on, please sit down. You are not to read any
further unless you are sitting down, okay?
Well, I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the
concussion I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it
caught fire shortly after my arrival are pretty well healed now. I only spent
two weeks in the hospital and I now can see almost normally and I only get
those sick headaches once a week.
Fortunately, the fire in the dormitory and my jump was witnessed by an
attendant at the gas station near the dorm and he was the one who called
the fire department and the ambulance. He also visited me at the hospital
and since I had nowhere to live because of the burnt- out dorm, he was kind
enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. It's really a basement
room, but it's kind of cute. He is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply
in love and are planning to get married. We haven't exactly set the date yet,
but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show.
Yes, Mom and Dad, I am pregnant. I know how you are looking forward to
being grandparents and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the
same love and devotion and tender care you gave me as a child. The reason
for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection
which prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests and I carelessly
caught it from him. This will soon clear up with the penicillin injections I am
taking daily.
I know you will welcome him into the family with open arms. He is kind, and
although not well educated, has ambitions. Although he is of a different race
and religion than ours, I know oft-expressed tolerance will not permit you to
be bothered by the fact that his skin colour is somewhat darker than ours. I
am sure you will love him as I do. His family background is good, too, for I
hear that his father is an important gun-bearer in the village in Africa from
which he comes.
Now that I have brought you up to date, I want to tell you that there was no
dormitory fire. I do not have a concussion or a skull fracture, I was not in
the hospital, I am not pregnant, I am not engage, I do not have syphilis and
there is no colored man in my life. However, I am getting a "D" in history
and a "F" in science class and I wanted you to see these marks in their
proper perspective.