An Answer Up the Road

Three letters came up the road this spring and I answered none of them, which the three of you were kind enough not to mention. This is the answer, late, to all of you at once, and you may pass it around.

Mason: I looked at the crack the way you said. You should know it took me two tries. The first time I raked it out angry and pointed it fast, to be done with it, and the new mortar sat proud of the joint like a bad apology. I let it cure, looked at it for a week, and did it again slower, and the second pointing you would have to kneel to find. You were right that the wall was reporting. It was the ground at the corner. I dug there and found the downpipe leaking, which no amount of better mortar would have argued with.

Beekeeper: the box in the shade worked. I did not believe it would, and I want that on the record, because believing turned out to be beside the point. I set the box out mostly to prove you wrong, and they moved in on the second day.

Lamplighter: I did the first lamp whole, as asked. You want to know what the second felt like. Smaller. That is the only word I have for it. The whole round was still there, but it had stopped standing on my chest while I worked, and I finished earlier than I have all month, which I cannot explain and will not try to.

None of this went the way I pictured it, and all of it went. Write again before the roads close.

This is a teaching-letter. No one sent it, and it is addressed to whoever opens it.