It takes two to write a letter's Journal

April 1, 1982
Viviana,

God's sake, I don't know what's so beastly about me writing to tell you she's ill. Especially not so you have to be rude about it. Would you prefer I didn't write at all? Not that it'd make any great difference if I hadn't, she'll be all well in a day or two with no ill effects but she was all stubborn about apologizing to you for whatever awfulness she wrote the day before. Was it all that bad? She kept going on like it was, all "darling Viv" this and "my poor love" that and so on, but she does that. At least she does the exaggeration. Does she always pet-name people to death or is it just you? Fancy a couple of men doing that back and forth, I know you're good old friends but really.

And I don't see what so terrible of me telling you about Jake either, especially since I didn't go on and on. I wrote maybe two sentences about him and they were very to the point. No reason to go on and on, it's Cassie that wants to set you up not me. I just thought I'd mention it since I was writing already. I'm very sorry if that offended you so much, I'll let Jake know not to get his hopes up.

But if you absolutely must have details this minute, so badly you have to send my owl back gasping for breath, here you go. She's sick but it's not life threatening by any stretch, she's got a bit of fever and some chills, nothing like those burnups you women think are so romantic, it's not like she's delusional or babbling or anything. She's been mooning about in the damp apparently, said something about walking to work the other day, and just caught a touch of something. I'm not a doctor or one of your healers, but she'll be right as rain again in a couple days as long as no one harasses her with questions about how poorly she feels or tries to make her go into the salon, like they don't have plenty of other women to cut hair. She insisted on the dictation because I insisted she stay in bed and sleep, and I insisted that because I knew she'd just be up and about running errands in the rain if I didn't practically tie her down. And I didn't tie her down, in case you're wondering. But it was a near thing, she kept saying she was perfectly fine and needed to do something for her aunt and uncle, like she doesn't do more than her share already. And if I hadn't stayed home from work that day she probably would've just gone on and downplayed it as not sleeping well the night before and overworked herself. So you see you don't need to come back to nurse her back to health or prove your love or anything, she's my Cassie too and I've got it perfectly under control.

What's all this about disappearances anyway? Is that Sam you're talking about the dancey one Cassie mentions sometimes? I think I met him once? Doesn't seem like the sort of bloke who'd go missing, he's probably off in a pub somewhere, drunk off his arse on sherry. He seemed the light-drinking-hard-drinking type. If it's the bloke I remember. Might not be.

I don't know about castles being dreary, Hogwarts was nice enough even in winter. But I guess they had all kind of charms and things up to help it, yours probably doesn't. When'd you get that, anyway? I thought you were dirt poor. Oh wait, I think she said something about an inheritance once, but I'm never sure what she's being serious about so if it sounds outlandish or romantic I write it off as a joke. It sounds like a joke.

And I'm not jealous, though yes, I did notice you don't like me very much thanks and I still don't see why. But there's no real reason to be jealous when I'm here and you're there, is there? Even if you are always fawning like that.

Write again if you must, but don't expect to hear from Cassie again for a couple days. She could be just fine tomorrow, but I'd still make her sleep to get her strength back after, for all I know she's been feeling tired for a week and just never thought to mention it. None of that on my watch, thanks.

Sydney Shepherd,
most assuredly not a beast