Another Letter

Gene Southwell stepped out of the small airplane he'd been piloting. He walked towards the doors of the hangar and started to close them. The smell of grass and airplane fuel mixed and created a potent concoction that made him hungry to fly again. 
     The process of closing the hangar door involved him pushing against it and forcing it along the rail beneath it, then latching it shut. It took him about a minute and a half to do it. Once the hangar was shut, he sighed with a smile and started walking across the grass of the airfield. He passed by the airplane filling station, then turned past it and went to the tiny, four-space parking lot of the airport. 
     He opened the door to his car, and as soon as he did, his cellphone started to ring. He accepted the call without looking at the caller's identity and sat down in the seat, with his keys in his other hand. 
     "Gene Southwell speaking." He put the keys in the ignition and turned it on.
     "Hiya kid! What're you doing?" Said an older excitable voice.
     "Howdy dad. Just taking the airplane for a service flight." 
     "Isn't it too cloudy to fly?" Said his father.
     "You can fly in cloudy weather dad."
     The conversation they had was slow and meandering. As Gene drove through the streets of the small south Texas town, he and his father spoke about airplanes, weather patterns, home improvement projects, & nearly everything else they could think of. Only once Gene was pulling into the driveway of his small home did the conversation take an unexpected turn.
     "By the way, Annabelle wants you to come over right now."
     Gene sighed and shifted his car into reverse, then started driving towards the other side of town where Annabelle lived with their parents.
     "What's she asking for this time?"
     "She wants you to read a letter with her. I think it's from that singer you wrote to a couple weeks ago." 
     "That can't be right." Gene said as he stopped at an intersection. "I did five minutes of research about that woman. Some of her videos have billions of views on the internet. There's no way that letter's real."
     "That's what your mother and I told her, but you know how Annabelle is sometimes. She's dead-set on that letter being the genuine article." His father sighed. "Besides, your mother's making casserole tonight."
     Gene rolled his eyes as he drove past the town library.
     "I'm trying not to rely on you guys as much." 
     "Nothing wrong with being independent. It's not like you need to stay for dinner. I know you've probably got food at home."
     "Thanks dad. I'll see ya in a bit."
     "Yep, see ya."
     Gene turned on the radio of his car. He listened to some blues as the cloudy sky made the entire day seem more gray and dreary. He smiled anyway. He'd been up there, among the clouds, and he knew that beyond them there was a perfectly bright and sunny day.
~~~
     The door to Annabelle's bedroom opened with a slight creak as Gene stepped in. He saw her located in the corner of her room, with her head on the ground, her long wavy black hair splayed out wildly beneath her, and her gangly legs propped up against the wall. In her arms, directly above her head, she held a plain, white, envelope. He chuckled.
     "What're you doing?" He said as he let the door slowly shut behind him.
     "Thinkin'."
     "What about?"
     "Letters."
     "Is that so?"
     "Yep."
     Gene walked over to his kid sister and crouched down next to her, so that he was standing right above her as she laid in the corner of the room. He glanced at her, then at the letter, then back at her. She kept her gaze solely focused on the letter, hardly even acknowledging his presence.
     "Dad told me you wanted me to read it to you?"
     Annabelle nodded as she laid on the tile floor.
     Gene smiled softly.
     "Hand it over then, please."
     She did so. Once the envelope was in Gene's hands, his younger sister flopped onto the ground, then sat up straight. Her hair was an absolute mess, and the way she sat with her legs stretched out and her arms propping her up made her look almost like a spider. 
     As he opened the envelope, he braced himself for disappointment. It was probably some scam letter or chain mail thing. He froze as he considered the possibility that it might even be some sort of illicit joke. He frowned and looked at the envelope again.
     It was plain white, with an international stamp on it. The return address was Zygeist Media; but the fact that the handwriting looked almost like it had been printed on made him doubt its authenticity. 
     Annabelle poked his leg, and he fell from his crouching position onto his butt. She snickered as he glowered at her momentarily, then stopped frowning. He crossed his legs as he sat down.
     "Anna, this is probably just a form letter or something." 
     His sister looked down at the ground.
     She nodded, but as she did, Gene scolded himself internally.
     He bit his lip.
     "Forget what I just said." He tore open the envelope. "Let me read it."
     Annabelle raised her gaze and looked directly at her brother. He smiled at her as the envelope fell to the floor and he unfolded the letter. He loved seeing her excited.
     "Alright, let's see here..."
     He began to read the typed letter out loud.
     "Dear Annabelle and Gene Southwell. The question you asked me was very interesting. Recently, I have been wondering a lot about my soul. I was actually considering ending..." 
     Gene's eyes went wide and his voice stopped.
     "What?" Annabelle asked quietly. "What did she say next?"
     Gene didn't respond. He took a few moments to think about what to do. Annabelle stared directly at him the entire time, her blue eyes piercing through his stunned expression.
     He swallowed nervously. 
     He was definitely not reading a form letter.
     "A-Annabelle, I think I'm going to have to stop reading."
     "No!" She protested. 
     "Annabelle, I don't think you should hear all of what she's saying."
     "Is it something to pray for?" His sister asked nervously.
     Gene looked down at the letter and the words on it. 
     "I don't know that praying would do much good." He said with a sigh.
     Annabelle frowned at her older brother and crossed her arms.
     Gene tried avoiding his sister's glare, but he gave up almost immediately.
     "Yes, I guess you could pray about it if you really wanted to."
     "Good." Annabelle said, then reached under her bed and pulled out a box of markers. Gene watched with a smile as she grabbed a marker out of the box and wrote down the words, 'pray4miya' on her left forearm. Once she was done with that, she put the marker back into the box and looked at her brother. 
     She motioned for him to keep reading.
     "Just skip that part."
     Gene looked at the section of the letter that had made him pause. It was only a single sentence, he could skip over it and let Annabelle hear the rest. 
     "Okay."
     He cleared his throat.
     "My bad feelings have only gotten worse recently. I've been wondering if I'm wasting everybody's time with my music and my concerts, and I've met a lot of idols who wished they had what I have. But no matter what I do or what I sing or what I tell Mukashi (he's my manager) or what he tells me I don't feel any better when I go to sleep. Sometimes I just want to sleep and sleep and sleep. I was wondering if I even had a soul anymore because I'm pretty sure people with souls are supposed to feel things and there are a lot of days where I don't feel anything at all so doesn't that mean that I don't have a soul? My grandpa tried telling me something about souls once but he didn't remember a lot and I miss him because he was so smart and I just want to see him again but he's gone and I can't go back. What you asked me about praying for my own soul made me hurt but I liked it because it was a different kind of hurt then the empty hurt I feel all the time and I want to know more about that. How can I pray for my own soul? Will I feel better if I do that? Mukashi probably won't let me read the next letter you send if you send it to Zygeist Media, so wait until I send you another letter with instructions on how to respond. I'll try and get it sent soon. Miracle Miya."
     Gene and Annabelle stared at the letter.
     Annabelle looked at her brother, anxiously smiling.
     "Another letter." She whispered.