Florida State Prison, July 2010
Dear Ava,
You look stunning and not like I had imagined at all. Don’t read that wrong, I mean it in a good way, and even if you have changed in any way since the photograph was taken, I bet your eyes still have that kind of hidden depth, that only kindred spirits are allowed to see.
I had imagined you to look like an old school teacher that I had. She wore her hair tied back at the nape of her neck and glasses perched on the end of her nose. Not that she was old, but days in the school yard now seem almost too distant to recall. They seem blurry around the edges, as if they had been experienced by someone I once knew, someone that I’m not in touch with anymore.
At school I always had to play catch-up. Previously being taught at home meant that I was not
