Dear Evelyn,<br/><br/>Yes, I do remember Ralph. He was always kind of bratty and thought of himself as a real "ladies' man."  He would be just the kind who would try something and I don't want anything to happen to you.  Why is he still at home anyway?<br/><br/>I should tell you I am writing to you now from the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center.  We got in a few days ago late at night - or early in the morning.  If I have to sleep sitting up in one more train I'll, well, I don't know what I'll do but I won't like it.  My neck still hurts from sleeping slumped over.  Thank you for the kind offer, but you mustn't waste your small rations on me.  They feed me plenty well here, believe me you!<br/><br/>All we have been doing since we arrived is take tests.  The first day we did - well they called them tests but they were more likes games.  One I had to hold a wooden handle on the end of a long, stiff wire which went into a hole connected to a plate.  If I didn't hold my arm straight and steady, the wire would touch the circle and a lamp would light up.  Then they took us to a room that had large boards of pegs on them - NO! I am not making this up.  Our assignment was to take the pegs out of their holes, turn them to the right and then place them back in the hole.  It sounded easy enough until we had to do it. The peg had to be placed in the hole just so or it wouldn't fit.  Another test we did looked like a quarter place on a record player and we had to keep a pen on it as it moved.  I don't have any clue what this is supposed to tell them about how we can fight but I guess they know better than me.<br/><br/>The next day we had written examinations from early in the morning until the evening.  In all my years at Edison High I don't think I took as many tests as I did in that one day.  Everything was covered. General knowledge of the world, mathematics, mechanics, vocabulary, map reading, anything and everything you could probably think of.  You know as well as I do I've never been much on blackboards and book learning but it's over now and I did the best I could and there's nothing else I can do about it.  That's one of the many things this has all taught me: worrying is useless.  We were scheduled to stay at the last base for another couple weeks when one day the corporeal came in and said, "Pack your bags, we're moving out in an hour."  When someone asked where he said that it didn't matter.  So we packed up and here we are.  See, you can make all the plans in the world but in the end what's going to happen is what is going to happen.  "It is what it is," is what my buddy Tom says.<br/><br/>The most difficult test for me, wasn't even really a test.  We had to talk to a psychiatrist. A head doctor. I had only heard that word once before when Mother talked about my uncle Pete who had to see one once and then he went away and no one ever talked about him again.  I didn't know what to expect.  He asked me questions about what I knew about the Air Corps and then if I had ever walked in my sleep or fainted or been seasick.  I told him that I didn't recall ever doing any of those things.  Then for some reason he asked me what I wanted most out of life.  I said that I guess I just wanted a comfortable home with a loving wife and family that was raised in the same loving way I was.  He raised an eyebrow at that and looked at me like he was confused.  And then, do you know what he asked me? He asked me if I liked girls.  I couldn't believe it! I could feel the heat of the blush on my cheeks as I sheepishly smiled.  I said I did like being around girls, even if I was very shy. In fact, I told him you were the only girl I ever felt comfortable around.  He just wrote something on a pad and told me to go down to the second door on the left.<br/><br/>I am glad you are enjoying my bicycle.  Remember when we used to take those long rides out by old man Miller's place?  He had that small creek running through his pasture and we would take off our shoes and plop our feet in the water? I think about those days so much more now.  It's the little details like the clover that grew in clumps, or how the dandelion spores would blow across the field when a gust of wind would pick up.  It all just seems so far away.  But I can always read your letters and that brings me back home, if only for a few minutes.<br/><br/>Write again soon, please.<br/><br/>Yours,<br/>Jack