When he finally reached his Airbnb, he felt like he’d been run over by a wet truck. He stripped down to his underwear and examined his limbs. He couldn’t see any bruises on his brown skin, but they’d surely appear in a few hours. Grimacing, he sat on the couch and reached for his laptop, expecting to see an email from his boss, asking why he hadn’t sent in his piece about the Davidses yet, and Nick would have to say, Sorry, Thomas, I crashed my bike into a pole because 90 percent of the time, my life just sucks that way. Can I have an extension, please?
But when Nick opened his email, he didn’t see a message from Thomas. Instead, he had a notification that someone had contacted him through his website. Or rather, the website his best friend and newly self-appointed literary agent, Marcus, had created for him. Nick stared at the screen, perplexed. Had someone really discovered his website? Was there a person in the world who’d actually read his book? Get the fuck out of here. If anything, it was spam. Or someone had managed to find a copy of The Elves of Ceradon, read it, and hated it so much they felt the need to tell him so. No good could come from checking that email.
Nick pushed his laptop aside, wishing he had a frozen bag of vegetables to put on his aching knee. And he glanced at the laptop screen again. The subject of the person’s email was “You have a website!” Would a person who hated his book sound so optimistic?
Nick frowned, undecided.
Ah, fuck it. He’d let curiosity get the best of him.
He opened the message and braced himself for hate mail. Instead, to his surprise, he read the first line and felt himself smile.
PART ONE
THE EMAILS
1
FROM: Lily G. <[email protected]>
TO: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]>
DATE: May 9, 6:21pm
SUBJECT: You have a website!
Dear Mr. Strickland,
Have you ever been stuck on a subway train without air-conditioning on a 92-degree weather day? If not, count yourself lucky, because that’s what I’m experiencing right now and it’s absolute torture.
Okay, now that I have that off my chest, I want it to be clear that I never do stuff like this. And by stuff, I mean cold emailing a stranger. Chances are you probably won’t read this message, so my nerves might be for nothing. You did just create a website even though The Elves of Ceradon was published five years ago, so my assumption is that you don’t spend too much time online, which isn’t really a bad thing.
My name is Lily and I read your novel almost two years ago while working at a used bookstore. I’d never heard of your book and neither had my boss, so he told me to toss it. Mostly because this particular copy looked like a dog had chewed the bottom-right corner, which basically meant we couldn’t sell it. But the thought of throwing books away feels like a crime, and I was curious, so I started reading on my lunch break. Then I kept reading throughout the rest of my shift, on the bus ride home, all through dinner, and I stayed up until 3am to finish. Reading your book made me remember why I loved reading so much growing up. At the time, I’d been out of college for a year and hadn’t considered working with books outside of being a bookseller, but I realized maybe I could edit books like yours, but for children. Once I had that goal, everything changed. I work in book publishing now—not in the role I want, necessarily, but it’s a foot in the door. I think I have you and your book to thank, in a way. It got me through a tough and confusing time in my life.
Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details of my previous existential crisis. (Again, not sure you’ll even end up reading this.) I’m emailing you because I wanted to tell you that I loved your book. I thought Deko was one of the most interesting protagonists I’ve read in a long time. Do you plan to write a sequel? It ended on such a cliff-hanger with Deko, delirious and battle weary, finally reaching Ceradon but getting attacked by a life leech as soon as he touched the city gates! Did he survive? Did he die? I’ve been wondering this for two years.
I’m sure you’re inundated with messages thanks to your new website and contact form, but I hope
FROM: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]> TO: Lily G. <[email protected]>
DATE: May 14, 10:42pm
SUBJECT: Re: You have a website!
Lily—
You hope what? Did you mean to leave that sentence unfinished?
Either way, thank you for your kind message. It was really nice and surprising to read. You’re wrong in assuming that I’m inundated with emails. Yours is the first email I’ve ever received through my website, and to be honest, I thought you were someone sending me hate mail. You’re probably the only person who ever visits the site, other than my agent, who made the site for me.
I’m glad that my book served as an inspiration for you and your career. That’s probably the only way my book has ever inspired another person.
To answer your first question, no, I’ve never been stuck on a subway when it was 92 degrees outside. However, I did once find myself locked inside of a loo on a submarine in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Long story.
To answer your second question, no, I don’t plan to write a sequel. I don’t think of myself as an author anymore. More like a one-hit wonder, sans the hit. As far as I’m concerned, The Elves of Ceradon was written in another life, back when I was 22 and naive and thought I’d be the Black George R. R. Martin. Did Deko die lying there at the city gates? Did a Ceradonian elf come to his rescue? I don’t know. I’ll leave that up to your interpretation.
Wishing you luck in life.
~NRS
FROM: Lily G. <[email protected]> TO: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]>
DATE: May 15, 7:13am
SUBJECT: Re: You have a website!
Dear Mr. Strickland,
Oh my God. I had no idea I actually sent that email to you. I wrote it in a delirious, dehydrated state, right before I literally fainted. I was serious about that hot subway. Reading over my email, I can tell just how out of it I was. And I didn’t even finish it! I’m mortified.
And shocked?? I can’t believe that you actually read my email and that you replied. I was honestly starting to think that maybe you didn’t exist. I’m the only person I know who has read your book. Whenever I mention it to people, they have no idea what I’m talking about, which is really disappointing, because they don’t know what they’re missing, and I love my copy too much to loan it out. I have no idea where I’d find another if someone didn’t give it back. It looks like the book went out of print only a few months after publication.
I’m sorry to hear that you no longer think of yourself as an author. I didn’t realize how young you were when you wrote Elves. That’s so impressive. When I was 22, I was hiding from my roommates in our senior hall suite so that they wouldn’t force me to go to parties.
Your reply came at just the right time. It’s exactly the energy booster I need for my job interview later this afternoon. I’m taking it as a good omen.
Sincerely,
Lily G.
FROM: N.R. Strickland <[email protected]> TO: Lily G. <[email protected]>
DATE: June 12, 11:01pm
SUBJECT: Re: You have a website!