Dear Mara,

I have been on Livine for two months now, and I don’t really know what to think. When dad told me we had to come here, I didn’t want to leave Earth. Earth is so warm and bright. Earth also has you. I miss you more than anything. I would give so much just to hold you close again. I long for our nights together. I think I miss you all the more because it is so cold here all the time. Livine is not as close to their sun as the Earth is to ours. Livine is also much smaller than Earth. The result is that we get three cycles of light and dark in each day called the Passings. The sun is never here quite as long as I want it to be. At home you can really feel the sun kiss your skin, but here, it is just a gentle notion of warmth—not even a hug. They sleep twice a day. Livs and humans need more sleep because of the cold here. I never knew weather could control your life so much.

We have to eat a lot of protein to keep ourselves warm. I am thoroughly tired of colger meat. These creatures that we eat here are a lot like bison but they have larger and sharper incisors. The first time I saw a picture of one I had the notion to run away. The first time I ate one, though I really enjoyed it. The problem is, Livs do not value the art of cooking. At home we are so creative with our meals. We season and chop and roll and sizzle and fry. Livs have two ways of cooking: boiling and grilling. It is not grilling in our sense but rather throwing large hunks of meat between two heated metal blocks and letting it slightly warm for weeks. Heat is something that is valuable here. They try to conserve the energy they have to heat residences. I would still kill for a bite of a chicken taco.

The transition is hard, though. They prepared us for a year before we left, teaching us the language and the customs. It is mind-blowing how different life is here. The number system to just too much for me. I have the mathematical skills of a 12-year-old Liv. The language is not that bad, though. It is pretty rudimentary, which can be frustrating when you cannot find a word for what you mean. Writing this letter to you is exercising my linguistics more than they have been in weeks.

I understand why he brought me here, though. Apart from the energy problems, this world is rich with resources that Earth could use. They have more metal than they can use. Metal conducts too much cold here to be used for any furniture. They have these huge trees everywhere. It is actually a problem how many there are. They grow too fast to contain really.

Dad’s team of engineers is working on a faster way to remove them. They burn really slowly so they are good for fires in the house—that is if you can get them dry. It takes six months to get the water out from one snow. There are warehouses on the next two planets over filled with drying Saspines (that’s what they are called). But man do they make beautiful furniture! They have these rings of deep orange and magenta that make you want to cry. They smell wonderfully, too! If we could cook more with them, they would deliver a dark, stormy smell that would remind you of men’s cologne just a little before it surprises you with a dark caramel note. My bed is made of Saspine wood and I go to sleep dreaming of a tall dark man burning sugar and calling out to me.

The best part of Livine, though, is by far the snow. It isn’t like the snow at home. It is always on the ground and on the roofs. It is a dark eggplant color that looks lavender in the brief time that the sun comes out. Because it never leaves the ground, I guess nature knew it couldn’t be a nuisance. It softer and easier to move than snow. It is hard to explain the consistency. It looks a little like bubbles but does not feel anything like that. Do you remember those hot days we spent outside in the summer in Atlanta? Right after it rained, the air would be so humid, you could almost feel it weighing down on you. Well this snow is so light, it is more like heavy air. They call it glows. That makes me laugh because it is so dark and cold here and they call their dark purple snow “glows.”

All the glows in Livine couldn’t keep me from returning to you the moment I am of age here. They do not judge fully grown citizens by age but rather on common sense. That makes all the sense in the world to me! But many of our diplomats moved to pass age laws for Earth immigrants. (Probably because they did not have good enough judgement to pass the Livine exam for adulthood.) I will be 18 in 10 months, and I will be on the first traveler home.

Dad understands. He know that the only thing keeping us from getting married was my age. Here, we would both be able to shack up. They are very open about gender and mating here, so I am getting more used to it by the day. You can ask them any question you want, and believe me I have.

I have applied to Virginia Tech and a few other schools around you. I am optimistic about admission. Students who have studied in Levine or Reykell are not very common while students from the rim planets like Jaspor or Jakuu are not hard to find. What I really want to tell you is that I will be home with you before you know it. I will be in your arms breathing in your warmth and running my fingers through you beautiful dark hair. I always wear your ring, although I had to move it to a chain around my neck because the metal made my finger cold. I know they all say that we are foolish, but I know that they have never known the love that we have. I cannot wait to read your words and wrap them around me like a blanket to keep me warm in this faraway place. I hope school is going well for you. I wish you good times and easy classes full of ugly girls that do not divert your eye away from the lessons.

Yours and only yours,
Evie

—By Katie Lynn, 19