[ Enclosed within the well-sealed response is a small packet, folded to crimp on all edges; inside, the amount of ash a single sheet of parchment might produce. The exterior reads, For your peace of mind. One of them ought to care a whit about privacy.
(And if there's a certain dramatic appeal in being the only two (three) who will ever set eyes on a letter, well, that must be incidental.) ]
Isaac,
You are not wrong, of course. You have a keener eye for distinctions than I. Not only because my position makes such things regrettably easy to overlook, however. It is a shortcoming I navigate with more difficulty than I think wise to admit to most, but while I may keep others' secrets well guarded, I do trust the gentleness you have shown with mine.
In my life there have been those whose edges became indistinguishable from my own, who I let myself be drowned in. You might call them monstrous, but in them as much as you, I consider choice more important than potential. Still, it is a dangerous thing to lose one's self in another and call it understanding. All those since, I have allowed no more of me than skin for fear of a repetition.
Already, you have more of me than skin. You have more than my affection. What advantage I have over you, I cannot will away, but what steps I can take to even our footing, you need only name. If I am at times in some small terror to offer you more still, understand it is only because I know not where I ought stop. But an exchange of trust need not be even to provide a gauge by which to measure. Perhaps in the end that is fairer. It is at least a place I am content to start.
Teach me someday, the way you were called when you were named. Not today, not for years if you like, but should the Maker grant us time and your patience with my incessant curiosity hold throughout it, I would learn every face you care to show me.
no subject
(And if there's a certain dramatic appeal in being the only two (
three) who will ever set eyes on a letter, well, that must be incidental.) ]