Yesterday I received a very nice letter from Mary, saying she’s ecstatic to know I’m willing to write her story for her, calling me her lifesaver and saying how glad she is to have found me for a friend. Well, she’s going to write it, I guess, and I’m going to type it. I just wish her handwriting wasn’t so hard to read! She thought the journal excerpts from when we were cellies and she told Palma I had a crush on her were fabulous. She said she’s so unsure about how to go about having the book done that she wants done, even if it’ll help just one person. Just one person, she says. I understand. I mean, it makes perfect sense to me. Anyway, Tom and I agreed that the best place to start is by her sending me what she wants typed. My only concern is how to get it out there once it’s typed up. As we learned, publishing is no simple task. One step at a time, though – let’s get the story typed up.

In her first letter to me, she said she wanted it to be about Gretchen, but this time around she said she wants to start by telling the story of her life, and all about how her father abused her mother when she was carrying her. She said the doctors told her to abort her, saying the damage was so bad she was sure to lose her. Doctors always try to encourage women to have abortions or tell them they can’t have any more kids and try to prepare them for the worst possible case scenario. That way they feel they aren’t getting the woman’s hopes up.

She said she’s already written several clips of her life, but sent them home to family, which she says she could have sent to me.

Mary closes part one of her letter (there’s another envelope coming) by saying she understands the terms of my probation and that if there’s anything I don’t want to say in a letter, I can call her aunt, whose number she gave me.

Again, I’m not going to write to her weekly like I do with Paula, but I’m not going to turn my back on her, either. And I don’t care what Scot says, should I bring it up to him, but so far, Scot seems pretty cool. I think he’d be willing to work with me on this, but like I said, I’m going to write Mary’s story for her with or without his cooperation. She’s my friend and no one’s going to tell me we can’t be friends.