“I haven’t seen some of you for a long time, as I sit here in my room at juvenile hall. But I think about you all every day; my family, my extended family, my friends, the people I just say “Hi mister” to on the street, and even the crazy ones – you know who you are. I miss you, and I miss Hathian. I miss hearing all those whispers through the den.
Some of you might know why I’m in here. I did a bad thing though I didn’t have a choice, and they tell me I’ll be here for awhile yet, maybe until my eighteenth birthday. So instead of being able to pick up my guitar and climb the HPD roof and sing to you, this open letter will have to do.
I’ve heard there’s an election and that all y’all have a choice to make about who runs our beloved city, and I’ve heard the front runner is my old Seaside Principal, Miss Paige Davenport.
Davenport and I have a history; a big one. After all, she tried to kill me twice, and a woman who worships chaos and tries to kill you is a woman you can trust because you’ve seen every hand they have to play. If you’ve been to one of her speeches I bet it was just like my high school assemblies, magical wonderful words about how if we’re all strong and do as she says, everything will be better.
It won’t be better. It’ll be that earthquake or flood or hurricane we get every few years , because take my word for it, Paige is an amazing, spectacular, awe-inspiring lady….she’s powerful….wicked witch of the west or big bad wolf powerful, and if you let her in, she’ll blow your house down.
I’m not trying to make your choice for you, because I’m just a girl who got lucky and had a hit record and then made a bunch of bad mistakes, I’m a nobody just like you and I won’t presume to speak for you. You know your heart Hathian, and it might be dark, and it might be hungry, but I’ve also seen the way it gets so hungry, it sometimes tries to eat itself.
If you’re looking for hope….that bedazzling light you’re looking at isn’t the end of the tunnel….it’s your train.
Love
Buffy Ella”
((With this letter there is a picture of Buffy Ella’s clearly handwritten letter in her handwriting))
