Editor’s note: This story comes to us courtesy of Cynthia A. Jensen, independent author and occasional columnist for Books & Buzz Magazine.
I found myself intrigued with the ending, and wanted to invite our readers to come up with their own endings—so I can stop losing sleep over this!
Have a read, and be sure to leave a comment afterwards:
The Letter
by Cynthia A. Jensen
A letter arrived, and the news was not good. At least for Lani, anyway. I didn’t know anything about it until she came home from work and ripped the envelope open.
“Oh, no. No, no, no,” she cried, putting her head in her hands.
“What is it?” I asked, getting up from the sofa and approaching her. I put my arm around her shoulder. “Let me see.”
She moved away from me and started stomping around the living room. “Why?” She threw her hands in the air and shook the letter. “This is so unfair!”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I sat back down on the sofa and picked my book back up.
My sister flopped beside me and reread the typed print on her letter. I bent over towards her to try and catch a glimpse of what she was having a spaz about, but she pulled it away to the other side of her so I couldn’t see.
“What are you doing?” She asked, glaring at me with a look in her eyes I rarely saw.
“Just trying to see what is making you so upset.”
“It’s not any of your business,” she screamed. “You may be my sister, but you don’t have to know EVERYTHING that goes on in my life!”
“You’re right,” I scoffed and left the living room and headed for the kitchen. Guess who followed me in.
“I don’t believe this!” She said waving the letter around.
I got the pitcher of iced tea out of the refrigerator. “Want some?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Please.”
“Yes, please,” she mocked. I poured two glasses of tea and placed them on the kitchen table. We sat down and each took a sip.
“Needs sugar,” Lani commented.
I got up and grabbed the box of sugar and two iced tea spoons and put them on the table. I measured out two spoonfuls of sugar and stirred my tea. My sister poured a ton of sugar in hers and stirred. There was so much sugar in her glass it looked like a snow globe.
“Nice.” I said, rolling my eyes and taking a sip from my glass.
“I don’t care about anything anymore. I wish this was a whiskey sour. I can’t believe they would do this to me.”
She was talking about the letter again. I kept trying to steal glances, but she noticed every time and moved it further away from me.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or are you going to be a drama queen for the rest of your life?” I asked.
Her cell phone rang at that exact time, and she answered it with tears. “Hi, Kellie. You won’t believe what came today in the mail.”
I thought I would finally find out what was going on. My sister looked at me and picked up the envelope and left the table, unknowingly leaving the letter behind. Finally, I thought. Now I can see what the hell she was having a conniption about. So, as I reached out to pick up the letter, I knocked my iced tea over on it.
Picking up the wet letter, I saw the words all smeared together. Now it was my turn to throw a fit, because I would never know what the letter was about.
The End
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