Hv 2 get up @ 6 am so this will b short.

Don't hv any tips 4 U, job hunters, & won't tomorrow either. This is your chance 2 show me what U can do.

Gd news, a short fiction of mine hs been accepted & will b on the Internet in the nxt few days. Will keep U posted. Meantime here is a preview, just 'cause I like U.

OPEN LETTER to JULIA Fiction. Words: 270

Camincha

Fading from life, my first cousin. In my mind I hold on

to you. As you were at twenty-four to my childhood years.

Your lovely frame, six feet, size seven. Blonde, peaches

and cream. Could have been international model of the

year. And I looked up to you. Your smile, your figure,

your tailored dark suit with the café con leche silk shirt,

and your hands, soft, almost a transparent white, with

long artistic fingers, a couple of doves, folded on your lap,

It's difficult for me to see how you sound, look today.

'Cause it's your spirit I feel fading. And your letter:

Imagine me a high executive woman always served by

cook, maid, chauffer. Me, since the ttake over, reduced

to housekeeper. To fill up my time, I make two daily trips

to the market instead of one. I make two. I do it on purpose,

you say. And I know you don’t even like those chores.

But today is all you have to keep you occupied.

And I worry knowing your idea of health care is being a

casual vegetarian. And have allowed yourself to become

obese. And the disappointments, nephew Andres not the

executive-married-with-children you always dreamed of.

And you and Hernan, your brother, spend evenings watching

television thankful for each other’s company. I worry.

And that other image keeps coming to the front, you at twenty-

four. And I realize it’s life cycle coming full circle. A reminder

of what is to come. Something to reckon with. But my pain is

deep for I always expected you to be there. Your twenty-four

to my childhood years.*

Camincha is from Miraflores,Lima,Perú. Earned her MA in Spanish Literature at San Francisco State University.