Dear Mom,

I miss you so much, I wish I could leave this place and go back home. I wish I could go back for at least a day... at least tomorrow, for my birthday. I wanted to save some money so I could ask someone to buy me a cake. I know you can't, so I wanted to buy it, but I don't get paid enough.

Mommy, it's really bad over here. I kept feeling sick the first week, but now I'm getting used to it. There's so much dust in the air, I feel like I'm suffocating. I still get a lot of headaches...I wish you could take care of me, mom. The mill is so dirty, and it can get really hot during the day. It's always so noisy. We stay in here locked up all day so we don't run away...