Letter from Daughter to Parents

Dear Mother and Dad:

It has now been three months since I left for college. I am very sorry for not having written before. Before you read on, please sit down. Don’t read it unless you are sitting down. Okay!

Well then, I am getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion I got when I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it caught fire shortly after my arrival are pretty well healed now. I only get those sick headaches once a day.

Fortunately the fire in the dormitory and my jump were witnessed by an attendant at the gas station near the dorm, and he was the one who called the fire department and the ambulance. He also visited me at the hospital and since I had nowhere to live, because of the burned out dormitory, he was kind enough to invite me to share his apartment with him. It's really a basement room, but it's cosy. He is a very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to be married. We haven't set the exact date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to show.

Yes Mother and Dad, I am pregnant. I know how much you are looking forward to being grandparents and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the love, devotion and tender care you gave me when I was a child. The reason for the delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some infection I carelessly caught it from him.

I know you will welcome him into our family with open arms. He is kind and although not well educated, he is ambitious. He is of a different race and religion than ours, I know you are very tolerant. His skin color is somewhat darker than ours. I am sure you will love him as I do. His family background is good too, for I am told that his father is an important hunter in the village in Africa from which he came.

Now that you know it, I want to tell you that there was no dormitory fire, I did not have a concussion or a skull fracture. I was not in the hospital, I am not pregnant, I am not engaged. I do not have syphillis and there is no man (of any color) in my life. However, I am getting a 'D' in History and an 'F' in Science and I wanted you to see that those marks are not the worst thing.

Yours - Your Loving Daughter

skull fracture

concussion

dormitory = dorm

witness – очевидец, быть очевидцем

attendant

gas station

fire department

ambulance

basement room

cosy

fall in love