October 12, 2022.

Jerry,

Sharon and me and most everybody else in the book club got together after you left this past Sunday and we all decided it would be a good idea to send you this letter.

Just want to say up front that we don’t think you did or are doing anything wrong. If what happened to little Eric had happened to Spencer I would have taken him to the Pit too. And of course he’s your son and you’re going to love him no matter what.

Only I think maybe you’re fooling yourself about a couple things. It’s clear to anybody that he came back wrong, but whenever we try to talk to you about it you say things like “No actually I like him better this way” and “Why is it a problem that he’s eating rats it’s keeping the neighborhood pest problem under control” and the banging helps you sleep when he throws his tiny body bloody against the door of the basement all night and so on.

But we are sorry to say this but it is not just you that it bothers. When Eric gets out and starts stabbing himself in the middle of the diner it puts everyone off their denver omelettes and Lila lost out on a lot of tips that night. And the drawings he drew in the bibles at the library are both destructive and very upsetting. Nobody believes you when you say you are happy that he is showing a lot of artistic talent for his age or that isn’t it exciting that he knows a long-dead language now.

Now what we are NOT saying is that you have to re-kill Eric. If you do of course Sharon and me will help you, we have a lot of tools that could help and of course my time in the Marines gives me a lot of perspective .

What we are saying is PLEASE do not continue to lie to yourself that you think it is “cool” that he keeps saying he knows “the names of all the lights that appear when you close your eyes” or that he can sometimes speak in the voices of our dead relatives. You know it is not fun or funny, and frankly, it is offputting to all the members of the book club when you bring him in his cage.

We kindly request that you either keep a closer eye on your son and start admitting harsh truths to yourself, or we will re-kill him ourselves.

Thank you for your understanding, and we really appreciate the points you made in our earlier discussion about The Joy Luck Club. I hope you like the next chapter, Sharon has already read it and says it is a “doozey”!

Love,

Bull and Sharon and the rest of the Sunday Night Book Club.