The Correspondent

by Virginia Evans

I own your life is busier than my quiet one, so I’m humbling myself and writing again.

I wrote to Ann Patchett when I finished reading State of Wonder, and yesterday morning there was a reply in my mailbox! An adorable little postcard with a dog. I always love to get a note back. I am reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (I had to look how to spell that one). It’s very long. What are you reading?

I really don’t even think Harry needs a psychotherapist. Leave it to your generation to take someone who is absolutely brilliant and turn it into a problem.

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.

(This is the trouble with being only five foot one inch, and it has always been the trouble, but you know I am tall on the inside.)