Fictional recreation June 6, 1985

 Dear Mary Ann:

I received your card today.

A poorly written letter is currently in the mail to you from a few days ago.

Since you’ve gone, I’ve been working on the enclosed story, based on an event back in 1981, but which I have kept in the closet.

It is a story concurrent with the story about the doll.

This work is fiction, but based on fact, the events warped slightly to encompass a larger view.

Many of the conflict in this tale did not come to a head until just prior to Christmas. But I consolidated them in time to fit this tale.

Fiction is the method of madness I’ve chosen and often it can capture “truth” better than objective reporting can. It can say things we might not otherwise be able to say openly. In this case, I kept the story locked up until I felt it was safe.

The characters are not real. Kenny is no more me than Captain Kirk is but represents a lot of what I might think and feel at one time or another.

Jo Ann is not directly you, just some of what you might have been, put into the context of this story for me to manipulate, to challenge the religious dogma signified by the stalks of corn and promote the good and bad aspects of the characters as they react to her.

I have many such stories as you are likely to see over the next few years.

Please do not be offended. I’m not sending this story to you to cause offense. I imply no judgements in it. Each character is a victim of circumstance as all human beings are.

Tex is the most foolish; I cannot despise him. For there is a measure of truth even in him, a shocking truth centered on an individual’s sense of self-importance.

I send the story because it reflects the truth inside of me better than any poem I could write, and I hope you accept these words with the same love and tenderness with which they were meant.

I’ll write a more communicative letter to you shortly.

 

 

Love

Al Sullivan

 

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