Next was a cream-colored envelope with the return address of the Savoy, London, in raised silver letters. He envisioned half an amulet, a treasure map, a sinister warning, a photograph.

The letter was written in a firm hand.

Dear___________

I’ve been a terrible

Lee turned the letter over. He looked for a second page. He opened his mouth to ask the clerk for more direction.

He wondered why his name was missing. “I’ve been a terrible” what? Father? “I’ve been a terrible long time in writing …” But there was nothing, not even enough to build a fantasy. He shook both Nellie Hill’s envelope and the Savoy’s, as if mysteries might break free, but they didn’t. A feeling of disappointment crawled up. Why had no one let him know that death ended stories before they were supposed to end?

“Excuse me,” he said, in as quiet a voice as he had ever found. The clerk looked up from his gaze out the window. Lee realized he had nothing to say. “Thank you.” He shoved the letter into his pocket. The show was starting.

Two steps at a time down the staircase, and then into the street. He was so late he had to run, which was made harder by the crowds, and harder still by tears. Of course, he ran past the Onondagas, but he was not even looking.

6

A few seconds later, Lee’s flight back to the theater was interrupted, for there was an most ungodly mechanical roar. San Francisco had never heard a noise like this. Necks craned, small boys were hoisted up on their fathers’ shoulders, and on the second and third floors of office buildings, workers ceased to work and pushed toward the windows, the better to see what guttural explosions had just announced the opening of the Third Liberty Loan Drive.

Men were not the only ones going overseas. There would be women serving as nurses and drivers and telephone receptionists. When the girls of Mills College learned of the courier service, en masse they volunteered, and eight were debuting today to lead the parade. Each of them was mounted on a new olive-drab Harley-Davidson Model J horizontally opposed twin. Each of them had started her machine with a single down-thrust of the kick-starter, causing the windowpanes of Market Street to shake, and little girls to put their fingers into their ears, and the parade to begin.

They rode slowly, a walking pace, with their hair trimmed short enough to fit their helmets, and their goggles lowered around their necks, hands waving and occasionally scooped down to rev their engines again, which sent pockets of the crowds into displays of cheering.