This is such a brief and well-crafted letter from Dart that I’ve decided to copy it all – more or less verbatim.
Today was very much uneventful, with no mail, no friends, no love, no nothin’. The one thing which happened to me was the loss of my little cold companion, my bedfellow for lo, these many days, the most affectionate icebag I’ve ever known. It stayed by my side, maintaining its silent vigil for six days. I miss my l’il pal.
We got five new patients and lost four old ones today. I manage to be the long-termer on each of my wards. The honor is a hollow one, however. Being called “Old Man Peterson” is becoming a habit, and a most disgusting habit, too.
The boredom of the days is getting more intense as they follow in their swift, endless cordon. Pretty soon, maybe I can bore my way out of this pit of perfidy, this hacienda of health, this evil aerie…
Today I’ve skimmed three novels without striking a flame of desire. I’ve started a mystery story, and at the 55th page, thrown it down with a curse upon its yellowed pages. And now the exploits of one Ellery Queen are unfolding their tortuous way in a maze of plot and character possible only in an impossible detective story. I’m becoming an addict.
Oh fiddle! Fie on the mess!…The sooner this period of weakness is over, the better. The beautiful summer serves only to emphasize the effects of this gaol in keeping me from you, the object of my every whim, fancy and desire; the girl I love so dearly.
I love that he clearly expresses his despair and loneliness with enough humor and panache to keep from being maudlin. What tender mercy for his reader, who loves him.
Dot is delighted to have received both a letter from Dart and one from his mother. She quickly absolves him of his guilt for having missed a day or two of writing and she commiserates with him about the heat. The current weather in Greenwich inspires her to share a little rhyme she learned as a child: Spring has spung, Fall has fell. Summer’s here and it’s hot as…everything.
She writes that El is in Providence, RI meeting Don’s parents before they return to Greenwich on Thursday for their official engagement announcement party. The engagement is a surprise for family and friends, so Ruth is using Dot’s homecoming as an excuse to get folks to the Chamberlain home.
Dot is dreading the huge sale at her store this weekend, but is looking forward to her improved sales tally card. She also tells Dart it feels strange to be back at home, and sort of wishes she were staying with the Pecsoks. I suspect, like many young adults, she feels more mature or independent when she’s not sleeping under her parents’ roof.
She reports that she has just been rudely interrupted by her mother who has told her to go to sleep. And just when she was working up a mood to write some passionate prose to her sailor! Well, some other time, but her love is forever.
