2

Dearest Ember,

I am starting to think that my decision to come to South America was a rash one. Its unbelievable how many bugs there are! And how long it has taken us to get even a quarter of the way to where we are supposed to be. Or to where we were supposed to be a week ago. I shall tell you all about it in just a moment, but first I must sympathize with your situation.

How could your father ever have done such a thing? He is a great man, but to crush your hopes of becoming respectable businessman, or rather a woman, as a lady. How dare he. I am so sorry for leaving you to deal with something like this alone. I wish I could be there to help you through it, or rather to keep you from doing whatever I'm sure your planning right now. Or were planning after you sent this letter. You have to tell me what you have done. I truly hope that it wasn't too drastic.

Now, on with my adventures. The boat ride over here wasn't too miserable, just long and dirty, and we didn't have any encounters with storms large enough to capsize us. Just large enough to soak us to the bone. When we finally arrived in Venezuela, my first action was to take a bath. Uncle had no objections, as I was quite a sorry sight and he had some business to take care of before we started off to the the islands of the Dominican Republic, where we are to meet with the American scientist that called Uncle in. I believe his name is Mr. Daniels.

Anyway, back to the story. After I had cleaned up and no longer smelled like a wet dog, Uncle found me, and told me that there had been a problem with our ride over to meet the boat that would take us to the islands. We were now to ride with a caravan and use alpacas, which are quite similar to llamas, to carry all of our items. And since the alpacas cant carry too much weight, I had to leave some of my non-necessities in Venezuela. When the time finally came for us to leave, almost half of the things I had brought with me to South American had been sold, or just left behind.

The caravan was much more comfortable then the ship ride over, but it was strange. Nobody called me by my name. I knew that they could say it, but the called me something else. They all called me "Miss Narcissus." Do you know who Narcissus is? I don't know who Narcissus is. Maybe it was just my name translated or something. And that is the extent of my adventure in the caravan.

We are now in the town of a place that I cannot pronounce, and are to be departing shortly for the islands. I am going to send you this letter before we get there because I have no patience to wait like you do.

Good Luck With Everything!
Miss Lavie Brookes

P.S. I didn't address the topic of the ball or your lovely sounding dress, but I wish that I could have seen you in it! And I hope that you had loads of fun at the Ball!