Flat

Dear Mrs. Cardillo,

This is Flat. Kaden introduced us. I was upset when you sent me away, and the trip to Florida started off terribly. I was in the envelope for days without a blanket or anything to eat, and plenty of time to plan out how boring Pensacola would be - full of old people laying around on the beach reading books with no pictures and playing golf all afternoon.    Turns out Pensacola is not like Miami or Orland at all. It’s more like Alabama with a beach; farmers, sailors and lots of tiny churches. I didn’t like the people I was staying with at all at first. Kaden’s cousin Rinah was cool, but her little sister Ashirah kept bending me when she was dancing with me. All they did was dance and sing all day while their parents made really strange food. Stuff like humous, which is a thick paste made from chick peas, and rye bread and chicken soup that they even ate the bones out of. They say the bones are good for me. There’s a tree trunk in the middle of the house holding up the roof and they don’t even have a microwave oven or a dish washer. Lots of artists, builders and craft people kept coming over to the house and talking and playing music and eating and drinking herbal teas and something called beet kvass, which supposedly helps tiny things live inside of you to help digest food. Some of the people even slept over because they were from different parts of the country. Rinah’s dad gave me these fancy sunglasses so I could blend in. They also made me this pillow and blanket out of an old rag or something, and it’s actually pretty comfortable. A lot of their clothes seem to come from friends or thrift stores and they were saying that a lot of the people who make the clothes in the stores are treated badly by their bosses. Do you believe that? Rinah goes to school right there in the house and they read a lot of books and do projects. She lets me play with the blocks and marbles sometimes and they even took me to the beach and the playground. Rinah took me on the slide and held me up to look out of the telescope. For Halloween Rinah and Ashirah got dressed up as Angelina Ballerina and her sister Polly and I got to hang in the window with a black paper cat and scare people. In the end it turned out to be a pretty fun trip and I almost decided to stay, but I’ve really missed Kaden. I’m looking forward to being home and can’t wait to tell everyone in the class about my trip down South to Pensacola, Florida.

Yours truly, Flat Stanley

11/11/2013