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PRELUDE

He was seventeen the first time he saw her A February dusk in 1943 on the cold plains of Manzanar The snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains loomed in the distance, stoic and stark She appeared for but a few seconds; an ashy sht on the other side of the barbed fence Her clothes seee and flapped in the wind Her hair swirled madly, too, but slowly, even luxuriously, as if underwater Dust swept across the plains and blew into his eyes He blinked once, twice She was gone

An optical illusion, he thought A dusk-lit reverie of dancing dust playing tricks in the ept plains Nothing ination

He stared at that empty space where she was and then was not

Still he whispered her name:

“Charlie”

1

18 March 1935

Dear Alex Maki,

Hello! My name is Charlie Lévy I am your new “pen pal” in France Nice to meet you!

You are in Alish class avancé, “Who want to do a letter exchange program with American school?” And everyone is so happy Me theti words? Sorry! And sorry for lish for lish nanny at ho mistakes

Anyway, Mme Dubois say I must introduce myself in this first letter

My na shoe factory My Malish nanny, Katherine, is from London We live in Paris, a beautiful city Do you know the Tower of Eiffel? It is famous! I can see it fro world map you can find Paris

What about you? Do you have brother and sister? Do you play sport or lish, play cello, paint eggs, eat anything with Dundee(but I hate swimsuits I wish I was a boy—it is so easy for the to my American pen pal!

Do you like reading? I love to read! My English nanny say the best book in history is Jane Eyre, and one day I will read it But only when h (I will not read the French edition—that is cheating, no?) My drealish Literature at Sorbonne University Do you know Sorbonne University? It is the best university in the Earth!

I tell you so funny now I make a new friend last week She is from Helsinki, Finland, and her name is Aleksandra Mäki We call her “Alex” so her nickname is Alex Mäki! Like you, no? Maybe you are relatives? Maybe you are twins? (I a now)

Please write back I am excited!

Yours sincerely,

Charlie Lévy

April 9, 1935

Charlie,

Wait … you’re a girl?

Alex

April 13, 1935

Charlie,

My teacher Mrs Graff wasn’t happy when she learned I wasted a sta So she’se, she said

I actually coirl She said it was a siht you were a boy Anyway, it’s too late to change pen pals because everyone is already paired up She told uess I’m stuck with you The worst part is the whole class kno

Mrs Graff isme introduce myself, too There’s not much to say My dad’s a strawberry farmer, my mom’s a strawberry farmer’s wife, my brother’s a strawberry farmer’s son

I looked up France on a world map I’m not impressed It’s really puny compared to AMERICA, isn’t it? And Paris is just a tiny black dot on the map No offense, but that’s your capital? What’s that like, living in such a small city? Do you feel trapped all the time? Is it hard to breathe?

So you can see the Eiffel Tower from your bedroo it? Because I’ve seen pictures of the Eiffel Tower, and it looks like they started building it, then realized how ugly it was going to turn out So they just up and left Nothing but the uglyleft behind

I also read that you French people don’t like to shower, and that you’re all really smelly I think that’s true When I sniffed your letter, I s really foul Like underarm odor combined with a fart Maybe your farts are especially nasty because you eat too much Dundee marmalade And just what the heck is Dundee marmalade?

I don’t have any hobbies I don’t play any musical instruments I don’t like to fish or hunt or play sports I especially don’t like writing letters The only thing I like to do is read and draw comics The Famous Funnies 3 and 5 are cool 8 ain’t too bad

And now I’ve finished filling up this one page so I can stop

Alex

PS If you ever want to stop this stupid pen-pal thing, I won’t be offended In your next letter, just write tords, I QUIT, and I’ll show it to Mrs Graff You don’t even have to write it in English, you can just write Je quit if that’s easier for you

4 May 1935

Dear Alex Maki,

You are funny A!

Yours sincerely,

Charlie Lévy

THREE YEARS LATER

18 March 1938

Dear Alex,

Hello! This letter is celebrating our three-year anniversary as pen pals! Can you believe it? I can’t I never think ill be pen pals for so long All my class Thank you for putting up with allme yes, but I wonder!

Oh, and thank you for listening (reading?) to everything in hts with !), and the new boy I like at school (as you say, my new “flavor of the month”!!)

Your letters and funny drawings alwayshere in Europe They et Hitler and his stupid moustache and his oily hair and his crazy eyes, and how he comes closer and closer to France

Haha! You keep askingme! Okay, I will tell you now: I think I am a little pretty but not very pretty Maybe pretty but in a different way I think I have a certain fire in my eyes, like a purpos

e? A sharp focus that boys find pretty? Solish class, I see the at me And when I look up, they quickly

Okay, now that we are writing for three years, I have a confession I lied to you two years ago You ask if I like strawberries and I said yes But now I tell you the truth: I do not like strawberries They are pretty to look at, but when I eat one, J’ai envie de vomir Sorry I lie before because you are a strawberry farmer son I do not want to offend you

Sorry for this s relationship So inside this envelope I put a French flower This is how I say sorry to you I do not know the English name of this flower but in France, we call it œillet rose It has a nice set it, it is dead Maybe it is black and has bad s!)

Au revoir!

Charlie

April 15, 1938

Dear Charlie,

Your œillet rose arrived œillet dead But it wasn’t black or s now By the way, how the heck do you pronounce œillet? Because what is œ? Why are the o and e ether like Siamese twins?

Anyway, you don’t need to apologize about not liking strawberries I’m not too keen on them myself All my life I’ve planted them, sown them, picked them, harvested them, smelled them, sold the another one again Which is why I can’t wait to go off to college and do so else with my life Like become a cartoonist Actually, not like a cartoonist, but to become exactly a cartoonist That’s uarded secret My parents would have a fit if they found out Because they’ve got designs on their youngest child beco)

Speaking of secrets …

Since you ht that I confess so confession Okay, here goes

I’m not really who you think I am Do you remember how you once asked me to describe myself? And I may have told you that I have blond hair and blue eyes Well, that’s not quite true In fact, it’s not true at all I actually have black hair and brown eyes And in (in fairness, I never claimed that, you simply assumed it was Yes, you did, I can show it to you in your very first letter) My family name Maki is actually Japanese My parents are from Japan My father was born in a city called Hiroshima My mother is from Osaka But my brother and I, ere born in America

The reason I never corrected you is because you kept saying how excited you were to have an Auess I just didn’t want to disappoint you that I’m not actually a “real” American

Sorry,

Alex

11 May 1938