I'm crossing the Richmond Bridge now, coming home from work. Had a long stressful day. I mean, just debugging stress, dealing with that stupid sorting issue in Ember. And of course, still have medical bills on my mind, the contractor bills, credit card bills, all that stuff. Taxes are due. Obviously, I can afford it, but it's just, you never get a break. So anyway, I'm going to start a new audio recording. I want to kind of get on this first chapter about Florence and see where it leads me. So next audio file.

Chapter 1. Florence was feeling kind of fuzzy that day. She began feeling fuzzy right around just as she was approaching her home. She checked the mailbox as usual. Her standard stuff like flyers for the grocery store, letter from her aunt in San Angelo, addressed to her mother, electricity bill for her dad. But then she saw a creeping out of the corner of all the envelopes. A blue and white striped envelope. Reminded her of the barber shop stripes. She pulled it out and realized it was a special envelope addressed to her. On it said air mail and it seemed to have come from England. She had received letters from her aunt before but never a letter from outside the United States. This was so exciting. She looked closer and she could tell that she read the sender's address had no name on it. So it was even more puzzling was that they got her last name wrong or was it even addressed to her? I mean so she looked at it closer and he thought to herself could it be could there have been another Florence who lived at this house? I mean they had just recently moved here in the last three months. So it's quite possible that the previous that there was a girl who had lived here. That night over dinner she asked her her parents. Well actually she had recalled one day that her her dad complained about getting the mail for Mr so and so with that's not the same name. This is clearly a different name. So she had you know she thought well maybe it's it's it's not addressed to me at all. Maybe it's it's a letter that was intended for someone else. So she decided to you know the post office wasn't that far. It's only you know four blocks away and it was in the middle of the afternoon. Why not just walk over to the post office because she always walked over to Browning's anyway to get an RC Cola and peanuts. So she figured why not walk and ask if anyone had ever lived here by that name. And so she went down to the Browning's and paid a quarter for her RC Cola and peanuts and then started walking toward the post office. And just as she got within a block of the post office she could see there was some screaming or shouting. You know she has a she lived in the town of Lamisa. It's a very small town and these kind of things didn't happen. At least not during the middle of the day you know the screaming and yelling was for Friday nights you know at the high school football game. As she got closer she realized people were screaming at someone. They were screaming at someone standing in the middle of the road in the middle of the intersection in front of the post office. It was an old woman. She was standing in the middle of the road. Florence couldn't believe her eyes. People were driving by and and and they were you know honking as as they had to avoid her. And she was screaming and yelling at every car that drove by. As she was clear that she was not from this town she probably came from Mexico. She was screaming Spanish. And Florence knew very little Spanish from her high school classes. And her mother taught Spanish in the seventh grade. And she as she approached the woman she uh the lady immediately came up to her and said something in Spanish. Adon de Miguel. And Florence was like pardon? Adon de Miguel. And Florence said, please. Get us Miguel. Who is Miguel? And the old lady then said in Spanish, Miguel is my son. Do you know where he is? Florence is like no. Where did you last see him? Who is he? What does he do? He came to work in the fields. And I haven't heard from him for six months for for a year. I talked to the other workers who come and go from Mexico. And they all say they've never seen him. So I had to come. I had to pay lots of money to get here. And I don't know where he is. You must help me find my son. At this point the woman was grabbing Florence. And Florence was feeling very uncomfortable. She had dark piercing eyes. And this you know, streaks of white mixed with black in her hair. Her shoes were tattered. And she smelled like she's been sleeping on the streets. And in the middle of all this Florence could hear the roar of a truck coming closer and closer. This was no typical truck. This was a Old Bill Watson's truck. Bill Watson had one of the loudest trucks in all of town. He would drive his truck in the middle of the night after he came back from the dance halls. You could smell the liquor on his breath from your bedroom window as he drove by. It was thicker than the exhaust. And he had a broken muffler or he had something. But that exhaust was black and loud. It was a loud gurgling truck. And you could always hear the faint sound of music blowing from his radio. It was always tuned to the local country music station. And he was honking. He wasn't just speeding like he always does. He was pounding on his horn along with that exhaust. Sounded like a lion was racing towards the intersection. Florence tried to pull out of the woman's grip but she grabbed tighter. And she wouldn't move. She did not get out of the intersection and Florence kept begging her pleading. Por favor. Por favor. Senora. Senora. Por favor. You know, and get out of the way. Get out of the way. We have to get to the sidewalk. The woman wouldn't listen. And Bill's truck got louder and louder. But then all of a sudden the truck swerved. It just as it came into the intersection. And right before it it was making of what looked to be like a fish tail. And then suddenly it completely missed them as if they were invisible almost and slammed into the wall of the post office. The funny thing is along the way he knicked the mailbox that was on the corner and all the letters came flying out of it. They were floating up in the air. They were sitting in puddles of water. They were getting run over and stepped on. And people came to look at the scene. What was even funnier and weirder was that when that accident occurred the old woman snapped out of it as if she was having, you know, as if she woke up from a dream or as if she was underhypnosis. She simply stopped talking, let go and walked off. Florence didn't know what to do. She was staring at the scene, the accident. And she went up closer and could see that something had happened to Bill. I guess he finally got what he was asking for by drinking and driving so fast. He must have passed out at the wheel. There was nothing you could do after that once he passed out. He simply swerved. The truck at that point was driving. And I guess there was some, you know, crazy, crazy luck on Florence's side that the truck never hit her. There was a little boy. Florence recognized him from church. It was always, you know, one of those kind of like Dennis the Menace types. He was always picking on other kids, always, you know, getting into trouble. But he stared at Florence. And all of a sudden there was fear completely over his face. He was like, he just stared at her and he's like, I thought you were going to die. What that truck went right through you and you survived. Florence hands were shaking and she realized she was still gripping the letter. The post, the post office staff had run out and they were, they were completely, you know, out of their wits. I mean, they they couldn't believe that the truck, you know, hit their building and didn't injure any of them. Well, the police were on their way. Florence really didn't know what to do after that. She just she walked off to just like the old woman. In fact, she could see her. So she tried to follow her. She followed her. She was headed back towards her own home. It was it was she was literally almost at her home. So Florence started running after her. I don't know why she wanted to run after her. She didn't know why. Maybe she thought she still needed to help this lady. And so Florence saw her turn the corner at her street even. So she she she picked up her pace and she tried to catch her. But when she got to her street, the woman was gone. There was no sign of this woman. Florence was standing there in front of her house, turning her this way in that and couldn't find the woman. She didn't know what else to do. She went inside, poured herself a glass of water from the sink and just sat there and stared at the letter. She had no idea what what to do with this letter. I should she go back to the post office tomorrow when things settle down and ask. Maybe. Or should she just open it? If it really is intended for another person, she'll see. She'll tape it back up and send it on its way. It does have her name on it. But she really couldn't decide. Her mom came in from the backyard. I guess she had been doing some gardening that day. Looked at Florence better time to help me with the chores. Help me fix dinner. Your dad's going to be here soon. Florence helped her mother. She took up some meatloaf and corn on the side and some mashed potatoes. And they brewed a. And she pulled out the iced tea that her mom made in the morning that's sitting in the ice box. And her father came home just in time. Do you see Samuel? Have you seen Samuel? Florence go fetch your brother. It's dinner time. Florence had to go back out into the neighborhood looking for Samuel. Well she knew where he liked to hang out. Her hang out was the Browning's malt bar. Malt shop. Maybe it was called the

Her hangout was the malt bar. His hangout was one of the construction sites where the dump, as they like to call it, outside of town. Florence wasn't going to go all the way out there though to get him. She was about to hail one of the boys in the neighborhood so that he could ride his bike and go get him. When she saw him walking his bike, or Samuel, mom's going to have it in for you. He looked at her and he's like, couldn't help it, had a flash. Well then, dad's going to have it in for you. He doesn't want to have to buy any more inner tubes for that bike. It don't matter, one of my buddies got a patch kit. Dad don't have to do nothing. He said, if I gave him a pack of cigarettes, he would patch my bike. I told him, no way am I going to give you a pack, a whole pack. I'll give you three cigarettes. Marbrose, he said. Marbrose, I said. Don't skimp, give me some of them, Paul Miles or whatever, then cheapo cigarettes. Give me the real cigarettes. That's it, okay. Tomorrow we're going to go fix my bike, but anyway. Two of them went back inside. Samuel cleaned himself up. He got inside, Florence said. Samuel got a bike flat. Got a flat tire. That's why he's late. They sat at the table and at the dinner table Florence asked her parents. Do you know who lived here before us? Your father just shrugged. Couldn't say. It was empty when we bought it. Florence's mom said, I heard it was a family from Georgia. Who was coming to invest in some cotton fields. When the deal didn't go through, the father packed his things and moved the family back. Well, what do you think of this, Florence said, as she pulled out the envelope? She looked at it, her mom looked at it, her dad looked at it. That's international. That came here by plane. By airplane. I know. Must be real important, Florence said. Or it could just be a letter. That's what Samuel said. Aren't you read it? It's not hers, she asked it. Return it to the sender. But we can't return it to the sender. It's all the way in England. No, the post office will do it. Florence's dad said, don't worry, just leave it on my desk. I'll return it to the post office in the morning. Florence said, hmm. And Samuel said, come on, let's find out what's in it. Nope, we're not going to do it. That's against the law. What law? Messing with other people's mail. That's a federal offense. After Florence's dad finished his mail, he got up to have his tea next to it in his easy chair next to the radio. He turned on his favorite show and sat there until he would fall asleep in that chair. Florence's mother cleaned the table. And as usual, Florence helped her do the dishes. And then she would sit down and work on her quilting. Florence did her homework in her room. And Samuel waited till his father fell asleep and would tune the radio to his favorite station. The police, the true crime stories. After Florence finished her homework, she went over to her father's desk and wanted to get another peak at that letter one more time. She took it to her bed. She laid it on her bed, went and changed into her nightgown. Brushed her teeth. Said, good night to her mother and her brother and just sat there and stared at it. She thought, what amazing things are inside this letter. That's your wish I could put myself inside it and see where it takes me. Just pack myself up like a piece of paper. Oh, what it must be like to just be those pieces of paper. They've traveled more than I've ever done. Florence recalled the family trips to big bend. Carl's Bad Caverns, Austin. And that one trip to Brownsville, where they crossed the border into Mexico. Florence thought of the old lady, the old woman in her son. And fell asleep. The next morning Florence awoke. But her eyes opened, but she couldn't see. She was staring at something covering her face. It was a paper. It had handwriting on it and lines like it. But it was a different size. It was the letter. Oh, my goodness. She thought to herself, did I open this letter last night? She did. She realized she was probably sleepwalking again. Although, it's not really sleepwalking if you just sat in bed and did it. There were times when the neighbors told her that she came all the way over and started talking to them in the middle of the night about the strangest thing. Other times were scarier. She would wake up, standing in the middle of the kitchen, the door to the refrigerator open. She was afraid that one day she would sleepwalk and never come back or get lost or get kidnapped. She hated how dark it was at night. She tried to put those fears aside and thought, well, I better fold this back up and put it back on my dad's desk. She folded it back up and she got out some elmer's glue from her desk and glued the letter. Glue the envelope back together. When she went to look for her dad, her mother said he's already gone. He had to get up early. One of the machines was acting up at the cotton mill and he had to get in and get someone to fix it before the bales came in. In the middle of cotton season, you certainly don't want your cotton gin not working. Florence stared at that envelope with the fresh glue on it. She decided she was going to keep it. Her family didn't care about that letter. It was hers now. She was going to find out who it was.