Something New

She lay down on the grass looking at the sky. A feeling of happiness rushed through her like a river going south, unstoppable, towards the sea. She was told a letter was on the way to meet her and she just smiled and felt warm like the sun that bathed her skin. Picturing the letter in her mind she thought of the blue envelope and the neatly folded paper containing the message that would free her from the utter boredom of her illness. She had a strange and rare illness that made her feel bored and lifeless without any apparent reason. When asked about it she always said she didn’t know how she got it. And that was true. She didn’t want to feel numb and useless but it was innevitable. This is why she became happy whenever a new letter arrived. There was something magical about them: the way her mind filled with images of distant places and people she only saw on television and creatures that seemed to belong to another planet and the sounds and smells of things she couldn’t have guessed what they were. The stack of blue envelopes in the decorated box seemed to come alive every time she opened it and a quiet murmur of a crowd could be heard when she put her ear next to the envelopes. They made her feel alive and were her most prized possession. There was, however, one rule: she could only read each letter once. She learned it the hard way after the words on the first letter started to disappear when she reread it. That day she cried like never before because it was just like losing a friend or if someone had taken away a lollie from a little child. But now she knew better and after reading the letter she would fold it and put it back in the envelope with quick fingers and a head full of wonders…