Dear David

I didn’t behave very well either last night. We see so few people that I’m out of the habit. You may not have been aware of the extent to which Constance has lost her memory. She only intermittently knew who you were. Since it is her recent memory which is most affected, you would have to expect to introduce yourself not only each time you came but several times during an evening. You would also have to learn to find your way in conversations which have no discernible direction, to be content with non sequiturs, and to accept sharp changes in mood which have no apparent relation to the moment.

We rarely go out because the confusion of unfamiliar places can frighten Constance, and I don’t go out without her, unless it’s absolutely necessary.

I suppose it sounds a terribly confining life, but it is one we’ve learned to live with a good deal of contentment. It’s as much for my sake as for hers that I don’t want it disturbed. I have had to cut off friends who have wanted to ‘rescue’ me from it.

I’m not sure what there is I have to offer you under the circumstances. I don’t entertain with any pleasure the idea of evenings caught between someone who rarely remembers the past as we’ve lived it and someone who wants to remember what I’d as soon forget. I’m not capable of nostalgia.

But perhaps there are things we can do and be for each other in the present. Let’s try again.

Diana

Diana reread the letter, thinking it sounded more grudging than it should. But, just as she would not resort to their childhood initial, she would not fiddle with drafts for hours as David claimed to have done. Nor would she rush off with it like a lovesick girl and stuff it through his mail slot. What had waited this long to be done needn’t now occur with the suddenness and speed of a flash flood. Diana licked a stamp and placed it on the envelope which bore the address of a house she had never been in.

As she walked to the corner to mail it, Diana wondered whether she was now also opening the door to a lot of unknown young relatives. On her own terms, that would have to be, terms she would have to discover.