Authentically izzy, p.6
Authentically, Izzy, page 6
But I can’t wait for his responses—like Christmas morning every day.
Oh good grief, somebody slap me. I’m starting to sound like a Hallmark movie, and I only resort to those during certain times of the year . . . for sentimentality’s sake, of course.
Izzy
PS: What do I want? (This is a rhetorical question so, Luke, you are free NOT to answer.)
From: Luke Edgewood
To: Izzy Edgewood, Penelope Edgewood
Date: March 12
Subject: I still know everything
Izzy,
Slapping you doesn’t help. I’ve tried, but maybe I should have used something more attention-grabbing than a toy fish. What you need is a deep breath and the right perspective. Distance isn’t the key to a good relationship, communication is. Communication leads to trust and then commitment, and then you have what you really need most for your future, regardless of how that looks or where it is, islands or not.
It’s sad when there have been so many mean girls and heartless guys in the world that we forget the worthwhile ones are still out there, probably as hopeful in finding the “real thing” as we are.
Luke
PS: “No talk of romance”??? You do realize Heart-to-Heart is an online dating site, right?
PPS: I won’t even attempt to answer THAT rhetorical question.
Text from Penelope to Luke and Izzy: Where is my brother and who have you replaced him with? Luke, the email you sent to Izzy was absolutely beautiful. Maybe we’re both wiser in writing.
Izzy: Luke, I’m in tears. Where did you gain such wisdom?
Luke: Dr. Phil.
Luke: Penny-girl, you’ve never taken advantage of the depths of my personality. Now I’m off to field dress a deer while I watch the Bass Pro fishing show.
Penelope: You’re gross, Luke.
Penelope: BTW, which one do we talk about to distract Izzy from hyperventilating? Brontë, sea urchins, or Chris Pine? I can’t remember, but I know that one of those would cause me to hyperventilate, and it’s not the artist or the fish.
Luke: Penny-girl, you’re gross. Don’t mention Brontë, particularly Wuthering Heights. We know how that impacts Izzy.
* * *
Heart-to-Heart
Date: March 13
Izzy,
Some would say that speaking only when one has something to contribute is a sign of wisdom, which, to my mind, says a lot about you. Though the pressure of speaking in social settings can lead to the greatest of blunders from which no pun can save someone. Not that I speak from personal experience, of course. However, I will conclude that silence is only golden for so long within social settings before it descends into the depths of humiliation. Getting through those first few conversations, especially with a woman of interest, has always been my downfall, and I’m not certain why. I have an admirable command of the English language (or Caedric), but the world of small talk baffles me into a stupid state of near-muteness.
For some reason I believe your full name suits you much better than you realize. Or at least the you I’m coming to know through this online medium. Perhaps you haven’t grown into it yet, but I’ve always found the name Isabelle pleasant, especially when spoken aloud. It has a lyrical quality to it. And the way you write, the wit and charm, fits well the name of Isabelle Louisa Edgewood, I think.
We have very few Isabelles here. There are Fionas and Bridgets, Elaines and Brennas, Erikas and Ionas aplenty, but I don’t know a single Isabelle except you. And, you are right, I am rich in treasures of the measureless sort. Blessed is the perfect word, though I shouldn't mind a bit more marketing knowledge to help with the family business.
I am captivated by your great-grandmother’s sentiment about knowing someone’s soul first. I should think it would certainly help with small talk. In the same spirit in which you shared it, I feel this unique way of “meeting” provides a glimpse into the heart of someone without the distraction of “in-person-ness,” as you called it. Of course, we could be pretending. I’m not very good at pretending, though, and I would wager neither are you. But this is all conjecture from what I’ve learned about you through these notes thus far. I see no point in pretending, especially in this mode in which we communicate. To me, it lends itself to authenticity, if one wishes it.
I’ve researched your Blue Ridge Mountains and they are lovely. I can’t imagine seeing such layers of mountains. The Alnors are vast, but since the island is rather small, the mountains usually spill into the sea at some point. It appears that your weather is rather temperate than more northerly or Midwest locations in the US. Is that so?
In reference to “predictable” lives, I would say that we are both stepping out into a very unpredictable adventure by corresponding, wouldn’t you? And I’m quite pleased with this adventure thus far, even though my hobbit-ish nature raised a wary eye at first. Bookish friends are always worth an adventure, I think.
What do you enjoy doing most in your occupation as a librarian?
Brodie
PS: I never laugh at dragons, living or dead.
PPS: May I call you Isabelle?
Chapter 5
From: Izzy Edgewood
To: Penelope Edgewood, Luke Edgewood
Date: March 13
Subject: Hobbit? Or not?
His mountains “spill into the sea at some point.” Who is this man?! He can’t be real, can he?
And he writes with such eloquence and feeling! I don't know anyone within our age group who would EVER write messages like this. EVER! Most of them wouldn’t even know what the words admirable or temperate mean, let alone use them in deliciously beautiful sentences!
I am so afraid that this is one giant hoax and when it all surfaces, he’ll be some eighty-year-old professor of ancient literature that smells of mothballs, lives in a hovel, and writes maudlin poetry under a female pseudonym.
I feel like I’m teetering on the brink of something terrifying.
Can it be true?
Izzy
PS: He asked to call me Isabelle! Who does that?
PPS: I wonder what his voice sounds like.
From: Luke Edgewood
To: Izzy Edgewood, Penelope Edgewood
Date: March 13
Subject: Definitely a hobbit
Izzy,
Read my last message to you again.
Luke
PS: His smile is too young for an eighty year old. I can’t vouch for the mothballs or the female pseudonym.
PPS: You really need to expand your friend group. Or buy them dictionaries.
From: Penelope Edgewood
To: Izzy Edgewood, Luke Edgewood
Date: March 13
Subject: Re: Definitely a hobbit
Is it time for Chris Pine yet?
Penelope
PS: When is it NOT the time for Chris Pine?
From: Josephine Martin
To: Izzy Edgewood
Date: March 13
Subject: Dinner
Izzy,
Someone will be joining us for dinner at our house tomorrow night. His name is Murphy. Please do not mention that we had a cat with that name when we were children. That never makes a good impression.
He was brought on as the newest podiatrist in Patrick’s practice, though he’s been in practice for a while. That doesn’t mean he’s old. He’s not old. He’s mature. And he likes to read fiction.
He’s also stable, friendly, and looking for someone to settle down with him.
Josephine
PS: He has a grandchild. That doesn’t mean Murphy is old.
From: Izzy Edgewood
To: Josephine Martin
Date: March 13
Subject: Dinner deception
I am resorting to calling you Josie again. I’d refuse to come if I hadn’t promised your sweet husband that I’d bring my chocolate chip brownie cake.
Your beef stroganoff better be worth every minute.
How many children does Murphy have? And more importantly, what are their ages? For some reason the idea of dating a man whose children are my age doesn’t sit too well with me. Imagine Aunt Louisa marrying someone your age. He’d be your stepfather! There is no amount of stroganoff or brownie cake to steady that thought.
And, there is no war.
Izzy
PS: If loving me means you will continue with the matchmaking, would you please love me less?
Text from Penelope to Izzy and Luke: I want a Brodie. I know two couples who met through online communities. One is happily married with three children. The other . . . well, I can’t remember how long his prison sentence is.
Luke: Reread your last text and think about it.
Luke: Izzy, what did Grandma used to quote when we were afraid?
Izzy: “Eat your vegetables or your hair will fall out”?
Luke: Other grandmother.
Izzy: “Have courage, dear heart.” Thank you, Luke.
* * *
Heart-to-Heart
Date: March 14
Brodie,
My grandfather used to call me Isabelle and, apart from the smell of tobacco, I have excellent memories of him. I’m not sure what you mean by my “growing into” my name, but it intrigues me, much like a clue to something I must figure out, and I adore mysteries. Agatha Christie is one of my favorite authors in the genre.
I’m not good at pretending either. The dozen children who hear me read during story time at the library will attest to it, especially when it’s a book I don’t like. The poor things have been lovely about pointing out my frowns . . . or growls, on occasion. And no wonder James Barrie created something as wonderful as children’s laughter to be the origin of fairies. Ah, Peter Pan!
It’s much easier to be authentic with children than adults, I think, because they seem to see through us anyway and get right to the heart of the matter. Adults rarely indulge in such honesty and directness, which makes this conversation so refreshing.
Maybe the combination of anonymity and kindred spirits loosens some sort of boundary most awkward first-encounters build? Does that make any sense? And, to my own surprise, I like it more than I thought I would. Perhaps it’s the company.
The weather here is fairly temperate, if by temperate you mean our winters rarely become abominably cold or our summers ghastly hot. We have days of both each year, but they aren’t common. Though it never snows enough for me. There’s something about going for a walk in the snow, seeing all the crystallized beauty, and then returning home to snuggle up by a fire with a hot chocolate and a good book to read. It makes the snow all the more magical to end it with such a scene. I suppose you have a great deal of snow in Skymar?
I love my work at the library because I can help people discover new stories, and, as I said before, the children keep me honest. I daydream about something different that still involves books but on a more intimate scale, and someday I hope to put those dreams into practice. But for now the library is the perfect spot for me. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what that “something different” is quite yet.
As far as hobbit-ish adventures go, I’m afraid I feel much more like Frodo in the “adventuring” department than his uncle Bilbo, but this bookish adventure we have started has certainly been a wonderful surprise.
What sort of business does your family have? Do you love it or are you struck with wanderlust for something else?
Izzy
PS: I’ve attached a photo of Samwise. That blurry spot in the corner is likely my thumb. I’m notorious for ruining the best photos with my thumbs. Samwise looks wonderful, however, so that is enough.
PPS: You may call me Isabelle.
From: Izzy Edgewood
To: Penelope Edgewood, Luke Edgewood
Date: March 14
Subject: Josie strikes again
I sat through dinner with Josephine and Patrick tonight and thought, This is not my life.
And it made me realize I want different, and I want better.
No matter how pregnant or good-intentioned my cousin may be, this matchmaking business must stop! She’s bordering on neurotic! Austen’s Emma has nothing on Josephine Martin!
Dr. Murphy Lewis had to have been fifty-five years old if he was a day. Fifty-five! And he has a three-year-old granddaughter whom he loves tremendously because he spent most of dessert showing photos to us. She is very cute and has double-dimpled cheeks, but that’s beside the point. Am I in such desperate shape to become someone’s step-grandmother at thirty years old? For some reason I feel like that may break some biblical law or something.
Now in Dr. Murphy’s defense, he was a very nice man. A very nice GRANDPA of a man. He does enjoy reading fiction. Louis L’Amour, the quintessential Western fiction author. I’ve read two of his books and they’re well written, but . . . those are the only books he reads. It was almost as bad as the forty-five-year-old man Josie tried to set me up with last year. Do you remember? He had a penchant for reading gothic horror novels, only dressed in black, stayed out of the sun to keep his complexion pale, and occasionally used words like forsooth and aghast. I had nightmares about him for a week.
Where does she find these people? Though I think that’s when she was going through her low-sugar diet phase. She did a lot of strange things then.
At any rate, I told her that I wasn’t interested in any more blind dates. If I am to die an old maid, then I’ll learn to be content with my books, my dog, and my favorite slippers.
Thank you for listening,
Izzy
PS: Distance and fabulous conversations trump in-person stiltedness any day.
PPS: And Murphy was a very nice man.
Text from Luke to Josephine: Josephine, stop with the matchmaking. You don’t know how to do it. Buy a dog.
* * *
Heart-to-Heart
Date: March 15
Isabelle,
I read my first Agatha Christie mystery last year and have devoured as many of her books as I could find since. She was an ingenious author. Her character of Poirot reminds me of my grandfather. He is a twitchy sort with the best heart in the world, but you wouldn’t know it upon first meeting. He also carried a miniature comb in his shirt pocket (for he always wore button-downs) so he could keep his mustache in excellent order. Once, I saw him with it mussed and hardly recognized him.
Children keep us truthful, don’t they? What exactly is a reading group with children? How does it work? By themes or a schedule? Can any child attend?
If you like snow, our higher elevations receive a solid amount each winter and usually into the spring.
Has your cousin Josie relinquished her matchmaking obsession since you’ve maintained this account or is she continuing her intervention? From your passionate response to her, I can only assume she’s made quite the endeavor to “assist” you in finding happiness. My grandmother assisted with a fervor. At one point I invented a girlfriend to deter her good intentions from driving me mad. Those were three of the happiest months of my life.
Of course, I write those words with love. My grandmother is an excellent woman and I’m sure if I lived closer to her again, she’d enlist her friends at the care home en masse to rectify my singleness problem.
Skymar is a group of five islands—the largest is Ansling, followed by Fiacla, then Inslay, Kernvik, and several smaller ones connected to the larger ones by bridges, or, what we call brus. (Can you hear the odd mix of Scandinavian and Celtic among the names? It’s a proper indicator of our unique culture here.) I live on Ansling, which is a central location from which to run the family business. Last year I began renovating a country house outside of the village of Elri. It’s an old family home handed down to me by an uncle and places me at a nice distance from most of the larger cities here (but nothing is very far since the island is small). My brother, who manages many of the physical aspects of the business, lives about 140 kilometers south in New Inswythe, one of the largest cities on Ansling. My mother and youngest sister remain in Skern, which is about a half hour away by car. Their central location is a perfect “headquarters” for the business. My eldest sister, her husband, and my nephew live on the island of Waithe.
My family is actually in the book business, started by my grandfather and carried on by each generation. You see, books are a part of my heritage, which I think is why we get on so well. We speak in books. It’s a unique and intimate language.
I hate to admit this, but I just finished reading Frankenstein for the first time. It was an excellent adventure. I’ve never been drawn to the science fiction genre, nor have I had much experience reading epistolary, but my sister informed me that gothic horror is not like the term horror used in popular culture, and recent events have caused me to become much fonder of letters.
(Being in the business of books does not mean one is familiar with everything about books, clearly.) I shall attempt Dracula next and then I feel I’ll need to take on something lighter. What would you recommend?
As with Samwise and Frodo, I believe a good companion on an unexpected adventure makes for the best sort of adventure. I’m happy to be your Samwise, as long as your dog doesn’t mind sharing the name.
Affectionately,
Brodie
PS: Samwise looks like a hearty, happy dog. At present he’s nearly twice the size of Argos, but I feel Argos may catch up.
PPS: What is your town like? What do you love about it?
From: Josephine Martin
To: Izzy Edgewood, Luke Edgewood
Date: March 15
Subject: Matchmaking
Luke (and Izzy),
Patrick told me the same thing about matchmaking last night after Izzy quite forcefully (for her) asked me to stop trying to find her a husband. (As you well know, Izzy, I am only trying to help.)
Patrick actually got a little snippy in Izzy’s defense, at which time I burst into tears and ran from the room. He’s never gotten snippy. Ever. Perhaps he’s been working too many long hours.
