Gary's Goodbye

Liz wrote sum more stuff last nite:

April,

Well I am pretty sure you are lying about that whole Mom disagreeing about me giving away the harmonica thing, but it doesn't matter anyway, Mtigwaki is a part of my past now, I'm not going to be thinking about it anymore.

Anyway, Gary took me to where Warren's helicopter was going to land and he said, "I must say, girl--you do travel in style!" and I said, "I know! Flying with Warren sure beats the bus!", I liked that he said this, first he was using the proper native form of address for me ("girl") and also it is proper for lowly people like natives to express jealousness and amazemetude over how a Patterson does things, then Gary thanked me for stuff, like smiles and Christmas gifts, and made me promise to keep in touch, and I did, but of course we both knew I was lying, because everyone knows a Patterson has better things to do than to keep in touch with a bunch of people who are not going to ever give you anything like a husband or prime rib dinners, like Mom always says, if you aren't in a position to give something to a Patterson, you don't deserve our friendship.

Anyway, then Gary told me not to be sad for too long because my heart would mend and love would come again, and then Gary hugged me close, and when I thought we had hugged for kind of a long time I looked up and I was going to say, "Hey, are we done hugging yet?" but then Gary kissed me on the mouth, and I was surprised, and he said, "Girl, that's just how a native says goodbye," and I said, "Oh, I thought we were talking about love," and Gary said, "Well girl, I'll talk to you all day about it if you want," and I said, "About what?" and Gary said, "Love, girl!" and I said, "Oh," and Gary said, "Sometimes it's closer than you think," and then Gary winked at me as Warren walked up.

I think Gary was trying to tell me something, I wish I knew what it was, natives are so wise.

Liz

Liz, how dare U say I lied by saying Mom was angry @ U abt the harmonica! Mom was all, "That harmonica was SACRED because my dad had it in the WAR! Not just any war, but the one U can just call "the WAR" and ppl will know U mean World War 2! And that's where he met Marian Barclay, soon to be Richards! And that harmonica helped keep him sane! It was supposed to stay in the Richards-Patterson clan! And her nose got all swollen and red, so U know she really was pissed.

Liz, wow, first U had Jesse trying 2 do U in his bedroom, then U had Gary trying 2 do U out in the open, outside. I guess it's a good thing U got outta Mtig. It sounds like most of the men and boys there can't control themselves around yr Patterson allure.

So, U think of First Nations ppl as being "lowly," eh? That sounds pretty racist for a girl who's all "I don't know Y ppl talk abt being diff races when we're all running 2 the same place" or whatevs it is when U try 2 pretend U don't know abt that particular meaning of the word "race."

NEhoodles, I know yr story gets more interesting 2morrow. Can hardly w8 2 find out what U R gonna say abt it. BTW, Warren took me, Marjee, and Howard up in the heli once 2 go shopping in TO. It was OK, but it wasn't that cool.

Apes