New Rochelle

Dear Shameed,

Oh my god! You will not believe the uproar your letter caused the other day. It was originally a storm of "Alice has a letter!" to "Nah, it's just my letter returning" which then turned into a hurricane of 'happy tears' (Mom's overdramatic nature) and screams of victory (mine). And Lily had to join the fun, of course. She managed to drench us in the liquid mom uses to wipe the windows. It's a miracle she's still breathing. But then agin, your letter provided the perfect distraction and the excitement certainly mellowed the anger I had been feeling towards her at the time.

Lily says thank you, for the record. (Yes, she's reading this over my shoulder once again) I would apologize on her behalf but from the smirk she's currently wearing, it would be safe to assume that she isn't feeling very apologetic at the moment. She just doesn't understand the meaning of privacy.

On a different note, I must confess I searched up the place Baramulla. Google comes pretty handy at times. And guess what? We live on opposite sides of the globe! Quite literally! (Now that I think about it, you probably would've already realized this, if your 'Baramulla's on the eastern side' comment is anything to go on)

While we're speaking about siblings, your sibling sounds like an angel. Lily's the kind of sister that could put satan out of his business. Hell, she wouldn't put him out of business, she would simply take over the underworld with the mere twitch of a finger.

But we love her anyway.

The reason for my sudden switch in personality was the fact that she just threatened to spill my secrets to mom. Don't mind the cheese dripping from the sentence up there. It's all for show.

Coming back to the topic at hand, isn't it fun? Having the house bustling with people who are near and dear to you? I would love that. Too bad, the only person I got along with was carted off to a mental institution a month ago. In my defense, Marcus seemed pretty normal (nice, even) whenever we conversed. He certainly didn't display signs of being unhinged, is what I'm trying to say.

What does the term 'toh' mean? I'm assuming it's synonymous with 'so', from the context it was placed in, however, which language is it a part of?

Have I mentioned I speak french? Je m'appelle francais! (I'm just bragging now...)

I guess that's pretty much it. And yes, I'm eagerly awaiting your next letter too!

Yours,

Alice

PS: Well, sort of. It's not exactly a derivative, but more of an old English word in itself.