Washington, DC 20007
Thank you very much for your consideration, and with warm regards I write,
Sybil Van Antwerp
FROM: [email protected]
DATE: Mar 3, 2017 05:25 AM
SUBJECT: Marly
Sybil,
Thank you for having me up for dinner last night. It was very nice to see the way Harry’s demeanor has relaxed since he has been staying with you.
I wanted to follow up on a few things. If you do not cash the checks I’ve sent, I’ll bring him home. It’s enough you’re keeping him and I’m not going to allow it to be a financial responsibility on top of the rest. I’ll keep sending a check each month, the amount being my own prerogative. I don’t care what you do with the money; I know you don’t “need” it. Maybe you should get a new roof; yours looks in need of replacement. Buy a sailboat. Plan a trip to Italy. Get someone in there to build you bookshelves in that sunroom.
It was never my intention to leave Harry this long with you, and I know it can’t go on like this forever, but now that I have Marly at home, it’s a full-time job. She is agitated and cries all the time or erupts in anger or sleeps for a whole day. She wanders in the house at night. Don’t think I’m sleeping, but can’t be sure. It’s unbearable, and yet, every time I see Harry he seems better, more content, more at ease, and you continue to emphasize you don’t mind having him, so I’m inclined to let him stay (which is what he wants). At this point the school year only has a little longer and the school said he can complete the year in this hybrid remote capacity. Are you sure you don’t mind? I will plan to bring Harry home come summer (mid-May), if it’s alright with you.
And lastly, I’d say Theodore Lübeck is in love with you. What an interesting man. Do you know the details surrounding his family leaving Germany? I will say, he is a funny sort. The way he’s dressed like it’s still 1978, and that European hat of his, but he’s smart and interested in everything you say. I’m certain he’s in love with you, but it’s my understanding from Harry that you are involved with a retired attorney from Texas.
I’m taking Harry to California to visit Stanford again before he makes his final decision. I have been hoping he would stay on the East Coast, but he seems most drawn to Stanford. I’ll take him out in a couple weeks, leaving that Thursday, March 16.
Thanks for the flowers you cut for Marly. She loved them. Your garden looks like something out of a magazine about the English countryside truly. Talk soon—James
(cont. April 15, 2017, previous pages UNSENT)
The flowers were all decapitated. Every bloom and bud snipped and left on the ground. Harry was out early to take the dog to the bathroom and he came running back inside. When I stepped out, everything was green, a monotone jungle, but the blooms littered the ground like the candy from a piñata. We went around and collected them, then tossed them in the bin. Without stems one cannot even put them in glasses. I felt numb. Rather, I felt resigned to the inevitable.
My neighbor Theodore, himself something of a gardener, came by shortly later, knocking on the door, upset by the obvious massacre, and so with Harry and Theodore in the kitchen asking questions it came out about the notes I have received from the angry individual with the initials “DM.” It had been quite some time since the last one, so I’d thought perhaps it was over. I told them it was someone needling me from back in the courthouse days, but I couldn’t bear to show them the notes, so I said I’d thrown them out (though of course I have not). Theodore said he was going to call the police, but I would not let him. Cutting flowers from their stems is no crime; it’s only April and many of the bushes will bloom again. What evidence do I have but the letters, which I could not bear to show them.
My houseguest Harry is different, though. He is fortunate to lack a certain civilized propriety that makes the standard person self-censor. He continued asking questions later that evening. I feel a certain openness with Harry. We are alike. We also have an established commitment to discreet confidence with one another. I showed him the notes. He studied them quietly for some time and the first question he asked me was if I knew who DM was. I said I thought I probably did know. There are some cases that stay with me, and one in particular, and it—Oh, Colt. If I could rewind the clock—do certain thingsdifferently. I have really made such a mess of things. He watched me for some time and after a bit Harry got up and ran me a glass of cold water. He set it down on the table and then he went to the drawer beneath the phone and took a slip of notepaper and a pencil and set them down in front of me, too. I wrote out the name and the date of the case and he asked me what I needed. Enzo Martinelli. I can still see him. I said an address would be sufficient. I went to bed, and in the morning there was a list of options he had found, so now I have it.
Oh, Colt.
FROM: [email protected]
DATE: Apr 28, 2017 08:10 AM
SUBJECT: Your Garden Club Office Position
Good afternoon, Sybil:
Due to the fact that you have missed the past three meetings of the Severn River Garden Club, in addition to the leadership meeting preceding the general meeting last week, the leadership has agreed to remove you from the position of club secretary effective immediately. I have my own duties as name badge chair, but I offered to take over your duties, so you can send me your most current membership list Excel spreadsheet. I will order you a new general membership name badge, so you can dispose of your badge with the gold rim that says “Secretary.”
Sincerely,
Debbie Banks
FROM: [email protected]
DATE: Apr 28, 2017 10:49 AM
