King Sorrow

Chapter 43

Forty-Three

Three days later, he was pulling on a pair of khakis in his bedroom when he heard a papery, rasping sound in the front hall,

followed by a whap of steel: someone dropping a letter through the mail slot. Her letter, he knew, a chill spreading into his blood. Jayne’s letter.

He stepped into the doorway, holding his unbuttoned pants up with one hand. Van got to the letter first, though, squatted

down, picked a cream-colored envelope up off the floor, turned it over and looked at the front.

“It’s for you,” Van said, his face calm and blank, nothing in his eyes.

Arthur took it out of his hands, tore it open, unfolded the letter within, and read his future.