July 16, 2013 

She wrote a story no one would ever read, typing it out one word at a time on thrift store typewriters as she traveled the country. Some thrift stores – the better ones, in her mind – had several typewriters, and she might even be able to get a whole sentence down in one store. “gun. – But – they – never – found – out,” she once typed in a Tacoma Value Village, between stops in sweaters, books, and home electronics. In some deprived stores she could only poke a number into a printing calculator, but that was fine. It was a thing to have done.

September 27, 2013

The first thing Emily ever drew was a happy face. We put it right up on the wall. Ever since then all she wants to do is draw happy faces. She plops down in front of the paper with her crayons and goes through sheet after sheet, but she can’t make the faces happy. They look sad, or confused, or occasionally maniacal, which is the closest she gets to happy, but it’s never like that first one. We’ve discussed taking away the crayons, but this is the first time she’s really applied herself and we don’t want to ruin it.