A Daughter's Letter Home

Dear Mom and Dad,

It has 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 falled 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 boy friend has some minor infection which 
prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests and 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 color 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 engaged, I do not have syphilis and 
there is no colored man in my life. However, I am getting a 'D' in history 
and an 'F' in science class and I wanted you to see these marks in their 
proper perspective.


Your loving daughter,

Trish