Day 26: Open email. Look at the first email from October 4 (any year). Use the subject line as the first line or title of your story. “Starlight”

Metropolitan Transportation Authority, flickr

“‘Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit’ cleared up two mysteries Monday — where its highly anticipated Orlando show will take place and why the organizers have kept mum for so long” Ms. Myska read in the newspaper email. She hadn’t known there had been a show planned in the first place. She sometimes let her emails stack up in her inbox and in fact had so many, she wondered if she should not dump them all at once. There was some comfort in hoarding them, like the online version of Aunt Lydia’s apartment where stacks of paper newspapers piled up so that one had to thread oneself around them.

She wanted to walk the rooms of the immersive Van Gogh exhibit, to stand among the irises, be embraced by the warmth of sunflowers, be taken in by a whorl of starlight, meet potato eaters, feel the lightness of almond blossoms, observe closely the artist’s face, inquire of his portrait: Were there moments of happiness? Of a sense of being transported? Did you know what would happen with your work?

She wondered if Tony Lasko, the ice cream man, would like to join her. She forwarded the email and attached some photos along with the note:

“Dear Tony, doesn’t this look wonderful? Would you like to go during a school hour when your ice cream truck is enjoying respite?”—Katarina

Two tickets were in her email inbox the next day. No note was attached. And that was what Ms. Myska loved about her new friend Tony, something her grandmother used to say: All that depth beneath a still surface.