A letter. One letter. Edana withdrew the envelope, her hand quivering. She looked down at the return address and squinted. Something couldn’t be right. This was not happening.
Chau looked over Edana’s shoulder.
“No,” she said out loud. “Just not possible.”
The letter was from Martin Steeple.
Chau didn’t reply, just pursed her lips and went in. Edana trailed after her. The post office had changed the way it operated; the main desk kept the old hours, but there was now access to the electronic postage calculator (a machine they gave a wide birth) and the PO Boxes. Security was provided by [...]
Edana nodded. “You must come over for tea sometime,” she said weakly.
“I //hate// tea,” Chau replied, and the professor nodded. (”I know,” he’d said in response.)
And suddenly they had nothing left to say to each other.
They made their goodbyes and Edana took the wheel home. Chau insisted on having the passenger’s seat. “I have to [...]
“A temple? You mean a shrine? Or a school?” Edana asked as Chau motioned for the check.
“It was something unusual,” the professor dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. “I’ll email you the–” He saw their faces. “Er, fax?” Blank looks. “To the store. One of your employees, perhaps…?”
They both looked relieved. “Gary will [...]
“Thank you so much for telling us this,” Chau said, because there was nothing else to say. Blackthorn died in silence and was not commemorated. That was all they needed to complete the perfect picture of horror.
“But don’t we need –” Edana began.
“No,” Chau said, looking directly at the bemused professor. “We don’t need anymore.” [...]
“Greenwood arrived that very night,” the professor confirmed. “He had been halfway across the world but apparently rushed to Massachusetts as soon as he heard. No one accused him of any wrongdoing. Apparently the man looked like death warmed over himself.”
Edana’s hand clutched Chau’s under the table.
“He put himself in charge of the funeral [...]
“His //uncle//?” Chau asked.
“He was a Druid,” Dr. Staedler said, “he knows what he saw.”
“What did he see?” Edana snapped. “Tell us what he said.”
“He …” Staedler trailed off. “He was found danging from the biggest Oak tree in the town square. Almost naked. The crowd was wondering what could’ve brought this about. By all [...]
“It was very shocking news at the time,” Chau reminded him. Devastating was a better word, really.
Edana nodded. “So shocking we can’t be sure we remember all the details clearly. That’s why we looked it up in the History.”
“You don’t need a History when you have a young, strapping lad like me around,” the [...]
The Editing message. It had gone back to that blasted Editing message.
“I’m not crazy,” Edana told Chau. “I’m not crazy. I’ve lived for an obscenely long time, but I’m not nuts. So please tell me why this is happening.”
Chau shrugged. Being dispassionate seemed so easy when her guts were actually on fire and drenched in [...]
The professor’s eyes lit the moment he saw it–the gleam of academic fervor. “And to what do I owe this honor?”
“Being as your studies are more, shall we say, current, than ours, we thought you might be able to glean something we’re missing.” Chau offered him the book but he hastily dipped his fingers into [...]
