Dear John,
Somehow I'm not entirely surprised you were "that kid." You seem the type. Football and rugby - you were popular, then? Seems like the athletes always are. I was, at best, tolerated when necessary - I learned early on that not everyone liked to know when they were wrong (including adults), but it took me a long time to realize that I could decrease the frequency of the bullying if I kept my mouth shut. I didn't always, of course, but at least I figured out the correlation.
This is just a quick note to say I'm finally back in England! Not, unfortunately, London - apparently I need coddling for another week, so I'm being shuttled to my parents' house in Devon. They're gone, of course, but the lovely couple who act as housekeeper and groundskeeper have been pressed into service. I'm quite sick of lying around on my face to "let the burns on my back breathe," but after the hellish journey here I find the prospect of lying down again is less appalling. It took me most of the way to type this on my phone - my residual dexterity is enough for a regular keyboard, apparently, but this touch screen is a nightmare. (The damage to my hands wasn't as severe as elsewhere, but they're still a bit sore.) Focusing on writing to you is the one thing keeping me from going feral on everyone involved in transporting me, I suspect.
See you in about a week?
- William