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PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE SPENCER

Emails From My Father

Emails have about as much room for nuance as Post-It notes, and less staying power. But sometimes they’re pure poetry.

Hi Nicole,

What do people in Manhattan do on Halloween?

Do the young go out for treats, or do they have them delivered like videos or dry-cleaning?

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

You have a letter here from BlueCross that I opened by mistake!

It’s not a bill.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

I spent just three hours working for Harold today, yet somehow it seemed longer.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

Although I didn’t really care that he died, like many I was struck by the fact that a Beatles reunion was no longer possible.

Bob Armstrong and his second wife June are on a cruise. Two thoughts immediately occur:

1. He will be gargantuan after two weeks of unlimited food possibilities.

2. June will be pregnant…again.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

Yes, that is indeed tasteless.

Michael and I watched the movie about the wine connoisseur from California who traveled through the wine districts with his friend who was to be married the following weekend.

I am not in telephone mode tonight as Harold already called once and left a message saying he would love to stop here for a beer, so I am not answering the phone or door!

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

It’s not every day that one can hear the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus sing show tunes with what I’m certain would be aching sensitivity.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

Yes, I am hiding from Harold.

Did you call Monday night or Tuesday?

I’ll phone you some time this evening unless I get an email from you telling me that you will be unavailable for conversation.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

The telephone connection last night wasn’t great and I didn’t really understand why the woman you know from Australia was out with Walter Mosley. Who was the other woman?

God, I sound old.

Love Da

 

Hi Guys,

Harold called today from the hospital.

He had a heart attack Sunday night!!!!!!!

Floating plaque blocked part of the blood supply to his heart and he will undergo open heart surgery Thursday.

He sounds okay and the prognosis is favorable.

The nurses might have something to say about that.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

Helium-3 could represent the next major reason space research will increase substantially in the next 20 years.

People sometimes forget that our modern world was almost completely created by space exploration.

This came to mind yesterday as I saw someone talking on a cell phone. I doubt this person ever considered that without huge investments in space travel, his life would be very different.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

I was afraid I would be forced to wheel Harold over for a visit this weekend, but it sounds as if he will walk over on his own.

Love Da

 

Hi Nicole,

Wow!

Do you remember in the Papillon novel, one of the prisoners was in prison because he had murdered a neighbor for feeding his brother to the pigs?

Love Da

 

My father acquires a 26-year-old girlfriend.

Hi Nicole,

Amanda is very well!

I am alone for a couple of hours so Amanda and some of her female friends can have an evening together. Since we work together, Amanda and I often spend at least 23 hours a day together. Doesn’t that seem strange?

Love Da

Writer Nicole Cliffe used to work for a hedge fund, and is currently writing an interminably dull and talky faux-19th-century novel. She divides her time between New York and a particularly austere ski town in the French Alps. More by Nicole Cliffe