Waterfalls by Robin Jones Gunn Page B

occasional passerby. Meri felt sorry for them. And in feeling sorry for the doomed wildflowers, she felt sorry for herself again.
    Maybe he wrote me a letter. Maybe a passionately romantic letter waits for me this very second at the end of the road in that big silver box. I’ll stand here in the sunshine and carefully slit open the envelope with my thumbnail. A butterfly will flutter over to see what’s so interesting. I’ll let her sit on my shoulder and share my secrets. Together we’ll read each tender line
,
    “My dearest
,
    You have been in my thoughts every night and every day. When I sleep, it is your face I see in every dream. Every morning the sun pours into my room, and there you are, riding on every sunbeam, your laughter spilling over me like a refreshing spring shower. You are in my heart. I won’t even try to banish you from my deepest thoughts. You are here. And here you will stay. Forever. Jacob.”
    Meredith put her hand to the rusted metal latch, and the silver cave groaned its discomfort as she opened the door and peered into the darkness.

Chapter Ten

    T he mailbox was stuffed. This was a good sign. It meant the odds were greater that a letter from Jake was part of the pack. Meredith pulled out the two large manila envelopes first. They were both from an agent she worked with frequently. Two new manuscripts and proposals for her to review. She extracted the other mail carefully. Two magazines, four catalogs, one advertisement for a new pizza place, and four envelopes.
    The first envelope was her phone bill. That was always depressing. She would open that one last. The next two were bank statements, one from checking and one from savings. The last letter was from a credit-card company announcing all over the front of the envelope that she was being rewarded for her excellent credit.
    Meredith checked inside the hollowed-out mailbox one more time. It was empty. She stood still just a moment, listening to the chickadees in the glen across the road. No butterflies came anywhere near, let alone perched on her shoulder.
    With a kick at the nearest pebble in the road, she headed back home. She had so much work to do. Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t received any kind of interesting mail. It would have sidetracked her, and she would have spent the rest of the day in La La Land.
    And what would be so bad about that? I work too hard. I always have. What was that verse? “For whom am I toiling … and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
    She couldn’t answer that question. Even her sassy alter ego had no comment to make.
    “I need some enjoyment,” Meredith said later that night as she was talking to her old college roommate on the phone. “Any chance you can leave that possessive husband of yours for a weekend so we can get together?”
    “When?” Karlee asked.
    “I don’t know. Whenever you can get away. We promised each other we would still do our wacky weekends even though you’re married, remember? I think it’s time to plan some fun. We haven’t done anything crazy for more than a year.”
    “Sounds fun,” Karlee said. “How about the second weekend in August?”
    “August? This is May, Karlee. I don’t want to wait until August!”
    “Blake has summer school starting in two weeks, and the weekends are the only time we’ll see each other since we’re both working full-time. What’s wrong with August? We’ll get some of the other wild women together and have a blast.”
    “We can do that,” Meri said flatly. “It’ll be fun. Let me know what’s best for you, and we’ll make our plans from there.”
    They chatted a few more minutes, but Meredith was feeling a surge of depression coming over her again. It didn’t help that apparently Blake had begun to tickle Karlee, and Mericould hear Karlee putting her hand over the phone and saying, “Stop it, Blake! I mean it!”
    Meredith was no love doctor, but she knew what was going on. “I’ll let you go,” she said.