O, What a Pity

Isn't it a shame when a correspondence devolves into nothing? I had a mail-order pen-pal from Illinois in third grade. Rachel whose last name is lost in a swill of memories I can't reach, and I cherished our American Girl Dolls--such was the topic of our letters. Our dolls, our families, Christmas presents, details about vacations to boring places... We never really knew each other outside of our mothers' copyediting. One year, I forgot to send her a birthday card, and my mother admonished me for it--an early encounter with Emily Post. Not long after, Rachel and I stopped writing and my doll ended up in a plastic storage bin.