Pen Pal Letters, Part 1

September 23rd, 198(?)

Dear Alexey,

My name is Simon Peterson. I am eleven. I live in Renton, Washington in America. My school has started a Sister City Pen Pal program and you have been assigned to me. Or I have been assigned to you. I had to research Kalach for this project and it sounds so cool! You live at the end of the railroad! I did not know railroads had ends. Is there a way to turn the train around or does it just drive backward when it leaves? How often does the train come? Do you ride the train? We have trains in Renton, lots of them but they're not for people. We drive cars and ride buses. Do you have any cars or buses?

I saw a picture of you and your family. Everyone looks kind of mad or disappointed. Is that normal or was that a bad day? I like your clothes. They are very different from what we wear in America. Not very many people wear animals as clothes here. Maybe I can come visit you some day. I want to wear a wolf or a bear.

Renton is medium sized city with a population of 31,109. Our major industries include Pacific Car (a railroad) and Boeing (they make airplanes). We are 14.1 miles south of Washington's largest city, Seattle. Seattle is cool because it has the Space Needle which is like a flying saucer with legs and you can stand in it and see all over. You can see the Puget Sound and Olympic and Cascade mountains. But the best thing ever is Mount Rainier! It is 14,441 feet high and always covered in snow. It also always has a cloud-hat that hangs on it. I don't know why that is. Seattle also has the Pike Place Market which is the only place I see people who wear animals. It is an outdoor market that sells flowers and produce and they throw fish! When I think of Kalach, I think of the Market. Do you throw fish there?

Tell me about your life? Do you have toys? I want a Teddy Ruxpin and a Rubik's Cube for Christmas, and an Atari! I can't wait! Do you have an Atari?

Well, goodbye for now. Some day soon this letter will be arriving on that awesome train! Until then you should smile more.

Your Pen Pal,

Simon

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November 15, 198(?)

Dear Simon Peterson,

Your letter arrived two weeks ago. Our mail is slow here. The envelope had been opened and several of the lines were marked out in black ink. My father will carry this letter through the thick forest that surrounds Kalach in order to get it to someone who can keep it from officials. If you get it without black ink you will know he succeeded. If you do not receive it, I will never see him again.

Life is hard here. The train is our only way in or out of Kalach. In the winter a plow is placed on the front but it often derails anyway. Without the train we are completely alone. But the government keeps sending more trains because we have the trees and they need them. If we ever ran out of trees I think they would stop sending the train. I hope we never run out of wood. My father has warned our town that we should plant more trees but no one will listen.

I have read your letter so many times that it has become worn with grime and coal-dust. Your world sounds so modern. I would like to visit this Space Needle. Although I do not know what features I might see as they were censored from your letter, Simon Peterson. I would very much like to go up in anything. Our village of Kalach is very small and only a few hundred people live here. Also, as I have said, it is surrounded by thick forest on all sides and so all I can see from the metal roof of the logging mill is more forest. It stretches on until the horizon. It is vast and terrifying and the animals we wear live there. I believe they attack at night for revenge. Father says that is silly and childish and animals have no souls with which to create spite.

The train turns around on a large rotating disk that we push ourselves. It is very heavy and takes twenty men to turn. In one month I will be twelve and I will begin turning the train. I wish I could stay eleven forever. I do not want to turn the train, Simon Peterson.

The nearest town is Sankin. It takes forty minutes to get there on the train. The trip is bleak and cold. The train is heated by wood fire that the passengers keep lit. Sankin is much larger than Kalach. I do not think it is as big as Renton, although I am not sure as the population was censored. But Sankin houses over 1,000 people and is so much bigger than Kalach that many are frightened by the size when first arriving. I am not frightened by the size, Simon Peterson. Like my father, I am not afraid of change. I am afraid of things staying the same. Some day, after I am twelve and have turned the train I will get into it and I will travel out of Kalach and past Sankin and past whatever towns or cities lye beyond Sankin.

I will ride the train until it reaches some other place where there is a disk and twenty men to turn it around. And if there is a ship in that place I will get on that too and I will stay hidden and sail across the ocean. I will make my way to the Space Needle and I will look 14.1 miles to the south and I will find Renton and walk through the forests to find you, Simon Peterson.

Your Friend and Pen Pal

Alexey Bolotov

P.S. We do not smile in photographs because mother believes there is a strict limit to joy.