My apologies for the long wait. I won’t take so long the next time, and hope you won’t punish me by waiting your own six months to reply. I’m on the edge of my seat, as they say. You yourself, Sybil, open a door to a world of possibility.
Very best wishes,
Hattie
FROM: [email protected]
DATE: Jun 26, 2017 10:15 AM
SUBJECT: SHE WROTE
Dear Basam, Hattie Gleason has written me AT LAST, as I live and breathe. It arrived at my house the same day as myself after a trip. (I went to Texas to spend a week with a man.) She is a botanist living in Scotland. She has brothers named Declan, John, and Douglas. She is four years younger than me. She wants to see a copy of the DNA match. (Of course she does. It was IDIOTIC I didn’t send it along with my letter, but perhaps I was feeling wary, as well, of sending off something so personal, but anyway, I will send the document to her. All the personal information it lists she has—my name, birthday. And, of course, the months I’ve waited for a letter in the mailbox from her, I’ve thought it must be a terrible shock. It was a terrible shock to me! Perhaps one doesn’t welcome shocks of this kind, necessarily. Perhaps she’d burned the letter, or thrown it away thinking it was a scam. It certainly seems like a scam. A “hoax” is the word she used.)
She said I have pristine penmanship, which is true. It’s unfortunate our entire correspondence has been through the e-mails so you have never seen it. I rather feel the way I write e-mails is less thoughtful than written letters. I’ll have to mull on that, another day.
I’m absolutely frantic, happy, nervous, buzzy. It’ll be time to clue in my brother, Felix, now, I suppose. Or maybe not. Maybe my girlfriends, but no. They will want to participate in the letter writing. I may tell my neighbor. He’s a gentle sort, a good listener.
Fill me in on your life.
Sybil
Ms. Sybil Van Antwerp
17 Farney Rd.
Arnold, MD 21012
July 18, 2017
Dear Ms. Van Antwerp,
There is a movie coming out this month and I saw the trailer and it made me think of you. It’s about an old woman who lives alone like a hermit. She is eccentric and rude, but you come to find out that she used to be the personal assistant to a United States president (I’m not sure if the movie supposes an actual previous president, like Kennedy or something, or if he’s fictional), and then it looks like maybe she was a Russian spy or something.
I am excited that Hattie Gleason wrote to you. Did you ever write the letter to Dezi Martinelli? If you did, did he write you back? Did Melissa Genet let you audit an English class?
My dad put the note George Lucas sent me in a frame and it’s on my desk.
Warm regards,
Harry Landy
Mr. Harry Landy
98 Dumbarton St. NW
Washington, DC 20007
August 1, 2017
Dear Harry,
Thank you for your letter. The movie sounds interesting. I have not written the letter you suggested. I understand this letter falls out of date, but it looks like you have abandoned the letter-writing schedule that we have previously kept, and that is helpful because it was necessary I write you today. I will pick you up on Thursday next, August 10, and together we’ll go see Melissa Genet. Please tell your father I’m taking you to the Smithsonian and to lunch as a send-off for university. I hope you don’t feel like you’re being used, although I suppose that’s exactly what’s happening. I’ll be outside your house promptly at 9 am. Please be ready to go, and looking decent, not in gym shorts or a t-shirt with images on it. I think khaki shorts, since it’s going to be over a hundred degrees Thursday, and a nice polo shirt. Make sure, Harry, make sure you comb your hair and brush your teeth.
I’ll see you then. Not a word to your father.
Ms. Van Antwerp
