(How are you enjoying the letter, Mama and Papa? Are you impressed I haven’t talked Lotte into doing something crazy like take the doctors and nurses hostage and make them perform Swan Lake in their underwear? Lotte, remember when Papa took us to see Swan Lake? Ugh, I can’t stand how pretty the dancers were. That’s not the kind of dancing we do in the High Voltage Dance Troupe, I can tell you that!)

Hmm, what else is going on? Things are status quo at good old Pinebluff Glenn Estates. You remember when we moved into “The Glenn” and it was about twenty houses? There must be two hundred now. I must apologetically report that the bulldozer noise, which you loved to block out with your headphones, is still an issue. At least it’s farther away now. The bulldozers look like little yellow bugs eating up the neighborhood to the south. Remember it? The roads all have color-based names, like Red Street and Blue Street, which I thought was pretty until Mama said it was because no one cared enough to think of real street names.

To be a straight shooter, I know you remember it. That’s where you got into some of your trouble. We don’t have to talk about that, Lotte. I bet you talk about it with your therapists until you’re blue in the face. At night when I’m snuggled in with Clara Bear McGrumpy, I dream of walking over to that neighborhood to find out exactly what you did, except I don’t walk there, I zoom like an insect. (Have no fear, Mama and Papa, I won’t actually do it.)

Please don’t interpret that as me asking to know the nature of your troubles. If you told me, Mama and Papa would only intercept it anyway. I only know one detail about your troubles, but it’s a detail I know very, very, very well. When I think back on finding you, I don’t remember dialing 911 or trying to get you to throw up. All I remember feeling is like I was the one about to die. I could barely move my limbs. I think it was because I was so sad. For so long I thought you were angry at us for moving to The Glenn. But it turns out you weren’t angry at all! You were lonely and scared!

Even though it’s a prudent choice not to let me visit the Clinic (hi Mama and Papa), I do wish I had Spider-Man abilities and could scale the walls and crawl into your bed like olden days, and snuggle you like Clara Bear McGrumpy. Would you even like that? Are you still not into touching people? Are you different now? Look, now I’m the one asking all the questions, ha ha ha.

I think I’m becoming different too.