Letter Never Sent

Sometimes the mails provide the strangest things.

My friend Troy spent the last year living in Amsterdam. We stayed in touch through a mix of late hour phone calls, emails and well-timed care packages.

Earlier this year he told me he was going to the Anne Frank House. He asked if I wanted any souvenirs, to which I replied just a postcard.

Though Troy told me all about the trip, he never sent the postcard because soon he moved back to the states, where we got to hang out over several weekends as he visited family in Colorado. One of the first things he gave me was the postcard, complete with a filled out address and "Nederland" postage. Only the message side of the card remained blank.

The card displays a 1954 photo of the movable bookcase used to hide the Frank family and the others who went into hiding with them. I think Troy picked the bookcase because he knows I am a bibliophile who appreciates the subversive nature of books.

I displayed the card on my desk for several weeks, and somewhere along the way I employed it as a bookmark. I hate to admit, but I hadn't noticed its absence.

Yesterday afternoon, after walking home from a productive but tiring Monday at work, I checked the mail before hitting the elevator to finally carry me home.

There was the post card.

Though a bit roughed up, its original stamp was now accompanied by American postage, as well as the following message written in a careful script:

THIS CARD -
FOUND - 8-9-06- DENVER -
INSIDE A LOVE SUPREME - THE
BOOK;
BY A PERSONAL FRIEND OF SR. JOHN COLTRANE;
WHO HAS-TOO VISITED
AMSTERDAM A.F. HAUS c. 1969
THIS CARD: FWD: AS A PEACE MISSIVE -ON-
EARTH

Only after reading the card did I recall that I had last seen it while reading a library book on John Coltrane. I've always said that in a library nothing is ever truly lost, just misplaced sometimes.

The Hitlist:
Holland 1945 – Neutral Milk Hotel
Acknowledgement – John Coltrane
Bureai Of Yards And Docks – Everything Absent or Distorted
Fiction – The Lucksmiths (Oh why would I lie to you?)