Dear Markus,

It's been a while since you and Valerie moved back to California, and already we've been missing you…!

Jake and Madison already have been talking about you guys the day you both left. After all, you both were our out of town regulars. Miss our salmon special? It is a small town, so news travels pretty fast.

Charlie definitely misses you. After you left and we had one of our walks, he seemed to whine when we got home. He may be old, but that hasn't shrunken his heart. I love that golden retriever.

Sister Catherine is doing much better after you both saved her. Dr. Hoover's been doing well, last I heard. He's doing nicely with his daughter and family down in Seattle. I'm so glad for him.

Ever since the hospital shut down, it's going to be inconvenient to get to Fairbanks, but at least there's helicopters if anything that bad happened. You and Valerie did so much good here, it's a loss to see you both go.

I won't forget when you helped John when he had the bad case of the flu. His temperature was so high, I had no idea what to do. As his mother, I felt so helpless, though I'm glad you helped back then. If anything happened to John, I wouldn't know what to do…

He's a smart guy. Really talented, especially in science. He'll be turning thirteen this year. He's grown so fast… From what I've gathered, he doesn't bring that many friends home. It makes me a little worried that he may not exactly fit in with the other kids at school, but John's kind and so great with Charlie.

I'm so glad for the person that he's becoming.

How are things down in Los Angeles? I remember you once told me you were from California, so it must be nice to have warm weather all the time. I'm sure you won't be missing the snow.

I'm so glad we're keeping in touch.

Sincerely yours,

Amber