Dear Wigleaf,

Perhaps you'll get this message. I hope you will. I asked the maid to take it when she goes home. She says there's a post office on the way, a stone one with pillars.

Stone stands safe.

There's a post box outside this window. I can see it if I lean out and turn my head. But nobody ever drops mail there, and nobody ever picks it up. Daddy said that's one of the ways you can tell if a country's civilized: you can count on the mail getting through.

The other way is, they don't put ice cubes in wine.

Once I set foot outside the door. I took seven steps down the hall. One for every letter in your name.

Then I looked down, and the black and white squares made me bilious. The hall pitched and swung like an angry church bell, one that said:

        You can't    Go home
        No more    No more


A nice bellhop took me back to my room, my safe room with a tame rug and no jumping squares on the floor, and here I am still.

Maybe you'll get this postcard. Maybe I'll hear your knock on my door, our old clubhouse knock:

        Shave and a haircut—
        Two bits!

And I'll open the door and there you'll be. You'll tell me it's all right now. You'll tell me it's time to come home.






- - -

Read Kathryn Kulpa's story.







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