maris_cousins@yahoo.com

To: dinahstone@hotmail.com

Cc:

Subject: Update from Canada

Hi Dinah,

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been in BC for about a week, staying with my brother and will probably go and visit my mother for a while. I’ve enjoyed being with Ray but I have a feeling I could just stay and stay — in a kind of vegetative state — and never get my shit together. He’s been really good, talking about things and helping me keep them in perspective. A big problem for me is that I feel like I’ve lost my “artist’s” eye somehow — that thing I told you about before I left S’pore. I’m having trouble seeing the colour in things and that tells me there’s something terribly wrong with me. We’re all still reeling from Peter’s death (I can’t seem to use the M word) and I’m not sure whether removing myself, at least physically, is the solution or not. I only know I had to try it.

Let me know what’s happening on your end. How are you coping? Is the shop still open? And, not that I really care, but where’s Angela? Is she giving you some room to operate the business?

I miss you, Di. I’ll keep you posted.

Maris

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dinahstone@hotmail.com

To: maris_cousins@yahoo.com

Cc:

Subject: Re: Update from Canada

Hi Maris,

I miss you too and really wish you were here (no pressure!). I’m managing things okay but am mostly on autopilot a lot of the time. The whole shock thing is a drag — I want it to go away but it just won’t. Some days I wake up and feel great and then I remember and I don’t feel so great. It’s like I’m in a jar and somebody puts the lid back on. Maybe if Peter had died of old age it wouldn’t be like this. But I keep thinking he should be here, he wasn’t finished whatever it was he was doing with his life. Not fair.

I have hired Lim, a distant cousin, to help me in the shop. Angela wasn’t too happy about it but I reminded her I couldn’t be in two places at once, i.e., in the back unpacking stuff and in the front selling it, so she gave in. Lim is working out fine. She’s a good worker and does most of the packing, shipping, and unpacking. Plus, she’s great with a duster. Maybe a little compulsive sometimes, but it’s better than the opposite (which I suppose would be lax or lazy — what great words!). She’s good company, too, and doesn’t mind running errands or making tea. So, lucky for me.

Angela is Angela, and even more so, if that’s possible. She’s back in Germany but calls me at least fourteen times a week with a million questions and orders, which she calls “requests,” but you and I both know Angela doesn’t request, she demands.

There is still no result from the police. They assure me the investigation is ongoing, but you wouldn’t know it. I guess at a certain point there are no more clues lying around, and they have to hope someone will confess or something will come out of left field. Someone comes into the store every day asking about it, so it never goes away. Peter had a lot of friends and the customers really liked him. How can I replace him? For now the shop runs on reputation and maybe a bit of the “ghoul” factor, but at some point both of those will fade, and then it will either make it or it won’t.

A couple of people have been in asking for you — Mr. Choy, do you remember him? He bought Blood Red Reverie last year. And Anna Wong said to say hello.

Keep in touch, Maris.

Miss you,

Dinah : - (