From: [email protected]
        Date: July 6th, 2018 at 9:08 a.m.
        To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
        Subject: Welcome!

        Hi there,

        We're excited that you've decided to join our online community, Trauma Survivors Unite. We pride ourselves on being a safe place for survivors to share their stories and be heard with good vibrations.

        Your account has been activated, and you can now freely post, or reply, in our forums, chat online, and e-mail us directly.

        The Team

        From: [email protected]
        Date: July 6th, 2018 at 11:33 a.m.
        To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
        Subject: RE: Welcome!

        Aren't you supposed to individually e-mail your new members?

        I don't want to speak for the other two people in this group, but I certainly would prefer for my private information to remain that way. Private.

        From: [email protected]
        Date: July 6th, 2018 at 12:49 p.m.
        To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
        Subject: RE: RE: Welcome!

        Private information? We live in the twenty-first century. It's an e-mail address, Johnny. Hardly your social security number.

        There's probably been a glitch in the system. These things happen.

        Sending positive vibes to you and yours,
        Misty

        From: [email protected]
        Date: July 6th, 2018 at 1:04 p.m.
        To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
        Subject: RE: RE: RE: Welcome!

        If it's any consolation, Johnny, at least your e-mail address is somewhat anonymous. I'm identifiable. Great.

        Praying that neither of you is weird nor crazy enough to look me up,
        Emmy

        From: [email protected]
        Date: July 6th, 2018 at 4:26 p.m.
        To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
        Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: Welcome!

        I don't know about Misty, but I'm not weird or crazy. Just utterly exhausted and burned-out. Believe it or not, my life is a constant battle for privacy, so I understand.

        Your secret's safe with me,
        Johnny

        From: [email protected]
        Date: July 6th, 2018 at 7:51 p.m.
        To: [email protected]
        Subject: Hi

        Hi Johnny,

        I know this is kind of random—and I feel stupid even typing this now—but I felt like I should reply to you after your last e-mail. Maybe you didn't intend to instigate a conversation with me, but your words struck a chord, so to speak. I can relate a little too well. The exhausted, burned-out part, anyway. Not the battle for privacy. Aside from this unfortunate e-mail mishap, I've had no experience with that.

        Anyway, I'm assuming the last thing you want is for me to ask or pry into why your life is so high-profile, so I won't, but I just wanted to say that I appreciate that.

        If I'm being honest, the whole reason I signed up to Trauma Survivors Unite was more to appease my older sister and my psychologist. They are two different people, in case that wasn't clear—even though my sister may as well be one. She is constantly analyzing me and trying to understand why I am the way I am. Even I don't have the answers to that, you know?

        Then again, I guess that's what you do for the people you care about, right? You try to justify and make sense of what they do, what they say, what shapes them into the person they become. My sister does that a lot with me. And I did that, too, with an ex-boyfriend.

        I realize this probably makes no sense to you. Feel free to ignore me and never reply to this e-mail.

        Best wishes,
        Emmy

        From: [email protected]
        Date: July 7th, 2018 at 10:14 p.m.
        To: [email protected]
        Subject: RE: Hi

        Hi Emmy,

        I have to admit, I wasn't expecting an e-mail back.

        I don't know why I shared that about myself. I'm usually tight-lipped about my feelings... about my life. Maybe it's because I'm so used to it playing out in the tabloids, so used to everyone forming their own opinion about me. What's the point of being honest when it's still overshadowed by lies, by what the media thinks?

        It makes sense. A lot of sense, actually. Your older sister sounds like mine—a worrier. I try not to give her a reason to be, but what can I say? I'm shit at pretending.

        Johnny

        P.S. Do you want to know the real reason I'm replying? You said my words struck a chord, and as a musician who hasn't been able to write a single song in almost three years, I guess that meant something to me.