June 11, 1995

Dear Sam,

It's been a couple of days. I tried to write every night like I did right after getting back, but I couldn't get my thoughts straight for more than a few words at a time, and I'd fall asleep with nothing but a page full of scratched-out and struck-through gibberish.

But now I think I've got it.

I said in that first letter, you have no way you could promise me we'll see each other again, ever. Not without a plan, without a means of contact. But you pleaded with me in your going away note, you left the journal for me, you said you'd see me again... not Mom & Dad, not Daniel, but me.

So it's on me, it's up to me. I'm gonna come find you, sis.

I'm an experienced traveler, now. I know how to get around on the cheap, I know how to stay safe, I know the mistakes you and Lonnie are likely to make. And heck, something in me lit up while I was exploring around Psycho House trying to figure out what happened. Maybe sleuthing is my thing. My calling?

So I'm packing my bags again, this time including the Bag o' Clues I put together, and hitting the road.

I don't know how long this will take. I'll probably need to hole up and make money sometimes—Mom and Dad don't have that much spare to speed me along with. But I'll make it work. (And I'll call them to let them know I'm okay, get it?!)

Maybe I'll find you in Salem, stuck there when the Army caught on to Lonnie day one and dragged her in.

Maybe I'll catch up to you road-tripping as groupies to one of these riot grrrl bands. Or auditioning for one. Or leading your own.

Maybe I'll find you in 2015 when we're all in our thirties and forties and the nation runs on cold fusion and nobody has to work anymore. (Ha ha.)

Or maybe I'll meet you and Lonnie in your golden years, happy together as ever, in a feminist commune in the wilderness somewhere.

But wherever and however it happens, I'm going to deliver these letters in person, and tell you everything's going to be okay, that your family loves you and people can change and if my little sister is head over heels for somebody then she's gotta at least be all right. Because that's what big sisters do.

And then we can all go home. Together.

See you soon,

Katie