Imperfection

Gene held two envelopes in his hand as he stood in front of his parents' mailbox.
     In his right hand, there was the envelope he and his sister had written.
     In his left hand, there was another letter from Miya.
     "Two letters in three days..." He said quietly.
     He glanced up the gravel path leading up to the driveway. Annabelle was currently setting up a board game for the four of them to play, and he'd told her he was just going to drop off their letter before he forgot to do it like he had the day prior.
     As he leaned against the mailbox in the light of the afternoon sun, he opened Miya's envelope. 
     "I fainted yesterday."
     Gene's grip on the letter tightened slightly.
     "I was very upset with Mukashi."
     "Figures." Gene muttered.
     "I'm sorry. I tried to do the right thing, but I couldn't. It was too much. I don't usually get angry. I'm very good at being calm. What happened is that I asked him something about the 'Miyashi' trend that I didn't really know about, and he reacted in a very strange way."
     Gene had no idea what 'Miyashi' meant.
     "Then he kept talking, acting like he hadn't done anything strange at all, but I saw him! I saw him flinch! And he just acted like it didn't happen! Then he had the audacity to suggest that it was my fault that everything with my schedule is becoming complicated!" 
     Gene frowned.
     "I'm sorry. I'm getting angry again just writing about it. I shouldn't be doing that. I know it's not right to be angry. My grandpa told me that being angry with someone for so long is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It's hard not to be angry. It's too hard. I'm sorry, I'm really trying my best. I'll try harder."
     The letter ended.
     Gene looked at what he and his sister had written in response to the last letter, then shoved it and Miya's new letter into his coat pocket and started walking back towards his parents' house. 
     Annabelle glanced furtively at the front door as her brother stepped inside. 
     "You're the thimble." She stated calmly, her dominion over the game board unquestionable.
     He glanced at her, then at his parents who were sitting on both sides of the table Annabelle had commandeered for their board game, then pulled Miya's letter out of his coat pocket.
     "We gotta talk." He looked into her blue eyes seriously.
~~~
     The door to Annabelle's bedroom was closed. The two siblings were inside it, and Gene had his shoulders leaning against the door securely. His voice was steady.
     "We aren't sending Miya any more letters."
     Annabelle's eyes went wide. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
     "I knew this was a bad idea from the start. I should've stood my ground." He pinched the slight bump on bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "That bit about 'doing the right thing' and the whole 'Jesus' shtick... that's not what she needs to hear."
     Annabelle's eyes glistened with fat tears as her brother spoke calmly to her. He removed his fingers from his face and shook his head. She still couldn't speak.
     "She's under a lotta stress, what with her worthless manager and grating schedule and a million other things I'm sure we don't know about." He leaned his head against the door and looked up at the ceiling of her bedroom. "She doesn't need any of that... religious jargon weighing on her. I mean, this latest letter has her all anxious about doing the right thing. She doesn't need that."
     Annabelle stood perfectly still. Gene could barely see her breathing.
     "I'm just... I'll send her a letter saying that she doesn't need to worry about the 'right thing' at the moment, and-"
     "Fine." Annabelle said, her voice shaking.
     "Annabelle, don't interr-"
     "Fine." She interrupted again.
     Gene sighed.
     "You always do this. I try to be reasonable about things and you get all upset about how I'm not having 'faith' or 'hope' or whatever new word you learned about in Sunday school this week." He frowned down at his sister. "Well listen here lil' missy: Miya is a real person. She's not like one of your Bible story characters who just hears a verse and has everything magically get better for her. She's struggling right now, and the last thing she needs is some little kid telling her that God wants her to do the 'right thing.'" 
     Annabelle hadn't moved from her spot next to her bed. Gene knew that she was crying, and so to avoid looking at her he closed his eyes and looked away while he spoke.
     "Real life is complicated. This... all this Bible stuff is... it's not gonna... help."
     He looked back at his sister.
     She was laying down on her bed, with her face directed up towards the ceiling. There were tear trails going down the sides of her face. Her eyes were wide open. 
     She didn't say anything for a few moments; she didn't even look at him at all. 
     Then, with quivering lips, she spoke again.
     "F-fine." She whispered, and her voice sounded like it belonged to a ghost.
     In that moment, his resolve shattered. He ran to his sister's bedside, wrapped her up in his arms, and felt like his soul became twice as light. He buried his head in her shoulder and held her tight and made sure she knew that he was only hugging her because he loved her.
     "I'm sorry." He said as he held his sister tight. 
     She slowly picked her arms up and wrapped them around his shoulders. 
     "Please... forgive me." He said quietly as he gave her another squeeze, then slowly pulled away from her. Their arms slid off each other until they were holding hands as they sat on her bed. "I-I just... I... I'm worried about that woman." He shook his head. "And when I saw that she was worried about what you said, I just... I let my emotions get the better of me."
     Annabelle smiled.
     "I already forgave you." 
     Gene looked at his sister and chuckled slightly as he let go of her hands.
     "You are... I swear, if the other kids at school can't figure out that you'd make a great friend, they must be blind in both eyes." 
     Annabelle glanced away.
     "I'm nicer at home." She mumbled.
     He smirked.
     "So you're still pretty darn nice at school." He pulled out the new letter from Miya. "Alright, we gotta send her something else. And if you're going to say anything religious, why don't we focus on the 'mercy' bit for now?"
     "If?" Annabelle asked with a smile.
     Gene just smiled as he pulled out the notes app on his cellphone.
~~~
     The last two weeks had been slightly easier for Miya. 
     Mukashi hadn't brought up her shouting incident at all.
     She appreciated that.
     There was also the fact that she was getting a full eight hours of sleep again, now that all of the year's music videos had finally been recorded. She still had fan meet-ups to attend and social media to manage and advertisements to do, but none of those were nearly as taxing as the music videos. 
     She sighed as she walked alongside Mukashi towards her bedroom.
     Once she reached the door, she stepped into the room quietly. Mukashi stayed outside the doorway and watched as she walked towards her bathroom.
     "The fan meet-up at two o'clock tomorrow has been rescheduled to three o'clock." He said coolly. "Because of this, you will be doing social media for another hour tomorrow morning." 
     "Yes, Mukashi." She said as he closed the door.
     She sighed, and her stomach felt empty. 
     She showered quickly, then washed her face, brushed her teeth, and stepped into her simple pajamas. She settled into her bed, then felt something graze her hand beneath her pillow. 
     She pulled the envelope out from under the pillow and looked at it.
     Thoughts clouded her mind about what the Southwell siblings must think of her; of how disappointed they must have been when they read about her reaction; of how she'd let them down. She had half a mind to just throw the letter away.
     But she opened it and read it, despite the fear that was nagging at her.
     "Dear Ms. Miya. Don't worry about messing up; that doesn't change the fact that God has plenty of mercy for you every morning, and so do we."
     Miya felt a faint, tiny smile appear on her lips.
     "I say that you don't have to be perfect; my sister says that's what Jesus was for."
     Her eyes went wide.
     The letter kept going; it actually went on for a while. It was really long, almost like it was two letters put together. Miya loved it.
     "P.S. Take care of yourself, okay? ~Gene"
     Miya went to sleep shortly afterwards with a watery smile.