"Honey?" My mom put her hand on my shoulder. "Why don't you come and do some schoolwork?"

I had been staring out the window for an hour, watching raindrops as they painted dark polkadots onto the sidewalk. In the yard, the leaves of towering green cotton balls fidgeted in the wind, chatting to one another like church gossips during fellowship. A thick layer of dust covered the heavens. I rested my arms on the sill, my chin laying atop folded fingers. From behind a quarter inch of glass, nature was beautiful. Beyond my window, it was a wild beast, its aggression sudden and uncontrollable.

                Your letter lies on my bedroom floor where I let it fall. I’ve already memorized every word.

               Dear Margaret Evelyn Beach,

               What the hell, Dave? We barely dated for a month and you’re using my middle name? My sister the swan princess probably told it to you. She’d walk off a cliff as long as someone asked her in Russian and set it to music.

               This is hard for me to explain-

               Really? This is hard for you? I‘m stunned. Jamming a note in the slats of my locker on the last day of school was apparently the best you could do.

               -and I hope you’ll understand.