Jan. 16, 1978                                                                                 Manitou Spgs., CO
 

Dear B___,

     Happy New Year and all that. Man, are you ever hard to get ahold of. I wrote your ex-ol’ lady first, and she said, and I quote, “As to his whereabouts, well, your guess is as good as mine. The last I heard he was still with TWA, but based in London. I do know that he was suspended for six weeks for giving free tickets to London to that girlfriend of his. I’m surprised they didn’t flat out fire him.” She mainly ranted about how you only write and send money on your boy’s birthday. She’s still pretty pissed off at you, my man. Anyway, she said that your folks might know and she gave me their new address and phone # in Texas. I didn’t even know they moved. Anyway, money’s been a little tight lately, and I don’t even have a phone at the moment, so I wrote a card. Didn’t here anything for a long time, but then your kid sister, Mayra, wrote me, and this is what she said: “We got your letter a long time ago, but we don’t know excatly where B___ is My brother has moved alot in the last couple of years because of his job. The reason I’m writing you instead of my mother is because my mother is discusted with B___. But she won’t tel anybody why. And she says she doesn’t know his adress. I know she does but I can’t find it any where. But I will look for it and if I find it I will send it to you. My big sister Letonya said if she gets the adress she will send the letter to B___ but I don’t think so because she is getting married and is always forgetting to do things. Mamma is discusted with Letonya because she says shes too young to get married. Right now your letter is on the fridge with a magnit on it.”

      I thought you’d like that, B__.

     Then I called TWA. They were kind of nasty, and no help at all. They did tell me you were on leave, though, but wouldn’t say where. So, how did I get your address? Letonya came through. She said you were living it up in Madrid for six months, and then you’d be going back to London. I guess she’d be married by now.
 I guess you’re probably surprised to hear from me after all these years, homes, and I bet you’re surprised at how long this letter is, or for me right at this second, how long it’s gonna be. This’ll be the longest thing I’ll ever have written by the time I’m done. I know that already, B___, ’cause the stuff I got on my mind is complicated and confusing. I’ve been sleeping pretty bad lately, ’cause I’ve been thinking about that thing that happened when you, me, Stick, and Camel saw that guy snatch that woman into his car in front of Griff’s, just after hoops practice. I’m sure you remember. It bothered me a lot back then, of course, but you know it’s been nine years now and you get over things like that after a while. And for a long time I didn’t really think about it all that much. But something happened a few weeks ago between me and my girlfriend, Anna, that brought all that stuff up again and has pretty much messed up things between me and her. The stuff I’m gonna tell you, speaking of “between,” is just between you and me. Period. OK? But I’ve gotta tell you the whole thing so you’ll understand where I’m coming from and understand why I’ve done what I’ve done. I feel bad that I’ve gotta talk about Anna behind her back like this, but goddamnit, you’re the only guy who’d understand what I’m trying to work out in my mind. You and me are pretty much cut from the same tree, you could say. We both grew up in this town. Well, I’m in Manitou now and not Colo. Spgs., but I’ll get to that later. We both hung around maybe too many white people growing up. We’re both tall and black, but can’t play hoops worth a damn. We both have had very weird relationships with redheaded, green-eyed women, only you actually married yours. Anna and I just lived together. Yeah, “live” in the past tense. Looks like it might be over between me and Anna. Over, unless, 
after you’ve read all this, you think what I’ve done is wrong, and you say that I should give Anna another chance, or she should give me one. You know, I was gonna try to get in touch with the other “fellas” about 
this, too. I know where the Stick is. I think I do, anyway. I ran into Coach Ortiz at José Muldoon’s and he told me the Stick is teaching poli sci at some college in Athens, Georgia. I’d tried his folks’ place first, but the old phone # don’t work and they’re not in the book. The last I heard about Camel is that  he joined the service. The army or the air force, I’m not sure. Can you imagine that big buck-tooth hippie in the service? But anyway, I decided not to write or call those guys ’cause, to be honest, they’re white and I don’t think they’d understand.