[Originally written on April 16, 2012] 

Florence creates two realities for herself when she begins writing to Shareef, but a third one is created for her along the way when she makes sacrifices for her loved ones and suffers from the words and hands of others.  The first one is the Florence that people interact with face-to-face.  She is a girl who enjoys corresponding with people from other countries.  Writing letters allows her to practice the technical aspects of her craft, mastering words, grammar, prose and the language.  She also enjoys the worldview that she receives from meeting people from foreign countries that offer a perspective of daily life, current events and politics.  She is very studious.  She excels through hard work at almost any subject offered.  Her favorite is English and she hopes that her mastery of literature and language will offer her a successful career in law, journalism and/or politics. 

She also has a vivid imagination that she brings to life in her short stories.  It often times controls her actions and words more than she is willing to realize (or let others know). One can say that it is fueled by an unchallenged intellect and the isolation of living in West Texas in the 1950’s.  When she begins writing to Shareef, she starts to play with the facelessness of the correspondence.  Her desire to create stories begins to take control and she starts to become a character of her story (through the false name that she gave herself).  The game ends quickly when she realizes that the story is leading Shareef to believe that she will one day visit Egypt and marry him.  This is the second reality, manufactured for the entertainment of the author.  If the author of this reality is unable to distinguish between this and the first reality, it can lead to pain and suffering among all parties involved. 

The third reality is not within Florence’s control.  It consists of the series of events that steer her efforts off-course.  It is a reality that most of us are unprepared for and few of us have ever conquered.  It tries to stop and/or slow down our efforts to succeed, when an athlete discovers he had a rare incurable disease or when war breaks out and men and women are expected to defend their country, when our heroes and idols suddenly become fallible, when our treasures are stolen, our homes taken and/or our jobs lost.