blackberry crowns: Words From the 5 Year Old

song of the day: AC/DC, the jack

I was walking down the street with my friend recently. We passed by, as you so often do in the city, a construction site. We got into a discussion about the jackhammers (is it weird that I really like their smell?) and why they're so loud. My friend, wizardress, explained that the reason they were so loud was not, as I conjectured, because of their fuel or somesuch, but because (in a much more reasonable observation) it was breaking up the street, a very hard material.

That was when genius struck. "They should just make the world out of soft things, then!" I exclaimed. "Yes, yes," I said, getting excited. "I'll send them a letter and tell them to make the world out of soft things! Then all the jackhammers will smell pleasant but won't be ear-breakingly loud!" I turned eagerly to my partner, but she replied "Lola, they would never write back to you." Ah, though; here's the secret: "If I write it and sign it 'love, lola *age 5*' they'll surely write back something like: 'what a great idea! We'll get right on it!'" This was how our bet was formed. She'll pay me if I get a letter back, I'll do the same if I don't get one.

So I set to work. A blank piece of paper, and a box of crayons were set out. I wrote in a wobbly left hand with backwards letters and misspelled words. My friend Becca drew some stick figure drawings. It was so much fun. I felt little again. Then we wrote a note in pen on the back from 'mother', that explained her darling five-year-old's note. It reads "'Dear Construction Company, I have an idea to make your jackhammers not loud. You can make the world out of soft things.
Love,
(name blanked here for privacy)'
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This is what my 5 year old daughter wrote on the other side. As we were walking past a construction site, she came up with an idea to diminish your sound output.
It would make her year if you wrote back.
Thanks!
Becca (last name blanked for reasons previously stated)"

I found con-edison's address and an old stamp with lilacs on it which I duly affixed to an envelope. Then, trembling with glee, I sent it into