Continued, The Correspondent
TO: sybilvanantwerp@
FROM: jameswlandy@
SUBJECT: Marly
Sybil,
Thank you for having me up for dinner last night. It was very nice to see the way Harry’s demeanor has relaxed since he has been staying with you.
I wanted to follow up on a few things. If you do not cash the checks I’ve sent, I’ll bring him home.
It’s enough you’re keeping him and I’m not going to allow it to be a financial responsibility on top of the rest. I’ll keep sending a check each month, the amount being my own prerogative.
I don’t care what you do with the money; I know you don’t “need” it.
Maybe you should get a new roof; yours looks in need of replacement.
Buy a sailboat. Plan a trip to Italy. Get someone in there to build you bookshelves in that sunroom.
It was never my intention to leave Harry this long with you, and I know it can’t go on like this forever, but now that I have Marly at home, it’s a full-time job.
She is agitated and cries all the time or erupts in anger or sleeps for a whole day.
She wanders in the house at night. Don’t think I’m sleeping, but can’t be sure.
It’s unbearable, and yet, every time I see Harry he seems better, more content, more at ease, and you continue to emphasize you don’t mind having him, so I’m inclined to let him stay (which is what he wants).
At this point the school year only has a little longer and the school said he can complete the year in this hybrid remote capacity.
Are you sure you don’t mind? I will plan to bring Harry home come summer (mid-May), if it’s alright with you.
And lastly, I’d say Theodore Lübeck is in love with you.
What an interesting man. Do you know the details surrounding his family leaving Germany?
I will say, he is a funny sort. The way he’s dressed like it’s still 1978, and that European hat of his, but he’s smart and interested in everything you say.
I’m certain he’s in love with you, but it’s my understanding from Harry that you are involved with a retired attorney from Texas.
I’m taking Harry to California to visit Stanford again before he makes his final decision. I have been hoping he would stay on the East Coast, but he seems most drawn to Stanford. I’ll take him out in a couple weeks, leaving that Thursday, March 16.
Thanks for the flowers you cut for Marly. She loved them. Your garden looks like something out of a magazine about the English countryside truly. Talk soon—James