A letter to Simon Sylvia sat at her writing desk with her note paper, quill and ink laid neatly in front of her. The writing set had been a birthday gift and she was deeply in awe of the heavy cream paper with its gold edges and a swirly flourish in the top and bottom centre of the border. Really, it was such fine paper that she ought to use it to write to ambassadors and people like that, but as she didn’t know any, she had settled for writing to Simon. Now that she was eight, and in possession of such a fine writing set, she didn’t think it would do to just add her name and some kisses on the bottom of mother and father’s letters any more.
She had thought hard about what to say, and had got mother to write down all the long words for her so that she would be sure to spell them correctly, and was now carefully producing this on the special note paper.
Dear Simon,
How is Sonora? I hope it is going well and that you are making a good impression.
I have been working very hard. Please note my improved penmanship (it is better than yours was when you were my age - I checked with Mr. Petty).
I have also been practising DIPLOMACY. When I was at Nate’s house, it looked like his mother had been crying but I pretended not to notice and said how nice she looked and ‘thank you for having me over to play’.
Please let your important room-mate friends know they are welcome to come over at Christmas, and then I can practise curtseys on real Sonora people. I want to be ready when it’s my turn to go.
Lots of love, Sylvia.
She checked the letter carefully, and then left it to let the ink dry. The toys nestled on the miniature settee caught her eye. The fact that the stuffed unicorn had also been a birthday present was a clear indicator that even once a young lady was old enough to write grown up letters (almost) all by herself, it didn’t mean that she had to stop doing other things… Sylvia lined the toys up, taking the unicorn to be her noble steed and placing a small rhinestone tiara on her head.
“I am Empress Sylvia,” she addressed the toys, “And I command you to go and face the dragon and bring me back his treasure!”