A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

At Base Camp, Nevaras Corp, Forestry Unit 65-82, 7:35pm

Mary sat on her bunk.  Work for the day was over, and it was time to go through her correspondences.  She read a few letters, many of them personal in nature, that were delivered to her via general delivery.  One letter was from a mother of three saying how sorry she was to hear that her father had died.  Another was from a man in his mid thirties who said he had studied philosophy and was clearly looking for a job.  Another was from a veteran who had fought in the war, and employed some rather vulgar language against her father who had allowed his buddies to take the fall for their actions in the war, and informing her that there were still millions in Kalistan who were still angry that "we" "apologized" for the war, and he thought the Emperor was a disgrace and he was glad that her father "got his" in the end.  Mary couldn't finish the letter:  there were three additional pages of this... diatribe...

Another was from someone who identified himself as "Jacob", and said he was in third grade, and that his class had been assigned a project to write a letter to a famous person and see if they could get a response from the famous person, to practice formal letter writing skills.  Most of his class wrote to celebrities and musicians, but he said he had read stories about Mary and her love of the forest, and he thought that he would like to send a letter to her.  Mary smiled as she read the letter.  The letter was short and told her a little about the kid:  He was 8 years old and lived in Red Pass Vrassa.  His parents were working class folks:  His dad was a worker in municipal water treatment and his mother was a line cook at a diner.  He liked school and his favorite subject was science, but he also likes art class as well.  He finished the letter by saying it would be very nice if she would write him back and tell him what she finds exciting about the forest and how she is liking her National Service.  He also said "If you don't write back, I will understand.  Ms. Longbridge says that famous people often don't read the letters they get because they receive so many, so we shouldn't be upset if we don't get one back, but it would be amazing if you did read this letter and wrote back even a short letter."

Mary smiled, and decided that she would write a letter back to this kid.  Maybe someday he too would come to the forests and plant trees and she could encourage him.

She started writing.  She introduced herself as Mary Ananto, and said that she was glad he wrote because she would love to tell him all about her work in the National Service Program.  She talked about her love of being out in nature.  "It connects me to the world, and I really feel refreshed and invigorated when I am alone in the wilderness," she said.  "I like people, but sometimes, I do also enjoy alone time, just to study plants, and think about how things grow.  I plant trees, from little saplings, and know that one day, this tree will be hundreds of feet high.  It is amazing to me that something like that can happen.  It's just magical."

She also talked about learning about mushrooms in the forest.  "Did you know that when you see a mushroom, it is just one tiny part of a much larger organism called mycelium?' she asked rhetorically.  "Some mycelia cover whole square miles in the forests and are a very important part of every healthy ecosphere, because they take the things that fall from trees, or die or whatever, and recycle that back into the building blocks of new life.  It is a constant cycle that has been going on for millions of years, and we are just getting to view the latest episode of the story.  But isn't it fun to think back on all the versions of life that have existed in each single spot anywhere you go?"

She talked about the importance of National Service, and the opportunities it provides for the people of the nation.  And she added information about how, if Jacob really has a passion, he should learn all he can about a topic, because the NSP looks for aptitude and interest in placement, and when Jacob does his National Service, he can ensure that he gets to do something he is interested in and knows something about.  Mary wrote and wrote, talking about everything in her life, from her daily life in the NSP, to what she was interested in in school, to asking questions that she wasn't sure would ever be answered, like what Jacob's life was like.

She talked about her parents...  

... and then, she paused.  She mentioned that her father had recently died, and his loss had made her very sad.  Her mother was also very sad.  And she started thinking about her mother and their experience at the memorial service.  And Mary realized that she had been crying, when she saw a tear splash on the paper and smudge the ink from the pen she was using to write the letter.  She was still grieving his loss, and she was still dreading her Service being over, because she knew she would have to take his place.  "God damn it," she whispered as she tried to wipe away the tear drop and only ended up smearing the ink even further.

She closed the letter with "Jacob, you can tell your teacher that I read all my letters.  I am so glad you wrote me.  My life will change soon, and I will enter a new phase.  And then I will see no more letters like yours, and that's pretty sad.  So I try to read as many of them now as I can, while I can.  I'm going to send this now, so I don't miss mail.  But thank you again for writing, and I hope you keep up your studies and learn all you can about what you love.  Your friend, Mary."

She quickly sealed the letter and put Jacob's return address on it and dropped it in the mail bag as the clerk was just finishing tying it up to take to the post office in town.  Mary returned to her bunk in the barracks and put on her headphones.  She was eager for the Season to start in a couple weeks, and would be bored until it did.