Story of L

        Every summer from 1995 until, I think, 2002, the girls spent a month on Long Island with their grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles. These were great times for Sarah and Amanda which have yielded many wouldn’t-trade-them-for-anything memories and might even result in a novel someday! And I tried not to miss the girls too much when they were gone.

        To help pass the time, I sent letters, alternating between daughters. They could not have been very newsy letters because I really didn’t do anything while they were gone except work long hours at the lab. There was one day I was writing to Amanda and I wrote that I was going to go to the mall and stay there until there was something interesting to say, and I would finish the letter then.

        Now, it is usually not a good idea for a personal storyteller to go out for the express purpose of getting a story – personal stories should be about things that have happened, not things that you have caused to happen just so there will be a story to tell.  I did not want to cause a story, just observe one or listen in on one – a fine line, I know, but remember, there was not much else going on that I could write about!

        And so I went to the Mall of Georgia, which was fairly new at the time – so this must have been after 1999, and I walked up and down the mall. I probably stopped in the bookstore and the card shop – but otherwise I just walked and listened. Finally, I sat down on one of the wooden benches near Old Navy not far from the food court.

        Three young people walked by, teenagers, one boy and two girls. One of the girls was talking and I heard, “And when I went out the next morning, I felt like everyone could see a big ‘L’ on my forehead!”

        And thus I was able to finish my letter to Amanda.

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