howeird | Weird Dream Channel (Reply)

I am at a party, sitting on a sofa, dressed only in a silk oriental robe which is open, the waist ties are undone and maybe never were done. Someone hands me something over my shoulder, which turns out to be a letter. It is fan-folded in a way which only shows the final page, which appears to be a carbon copy. The header has a CC list which includes my first and last names, along with four or five others which I do not read. It is from "Sung-tong Ping, wife, some-time lover, adventuress" but I don't see who it is addressed to.

It has some flowery language as a preface and then says "I regret to inform you" followed by a line announcing she has joined the Peace Corps, and pasted after that is her assignment to Japan, from her Peace Corps invitation letter.

I am surprised for several reasons. I don't know Sung-tong Ping (which name I keep flipping into "Tungsong" which is a town in southern Thailand), the Peace Corps does not send volunteers to Japan, and how did anyone know I would be at this party?

After reading the letter, which includes a lot of angst about how Sung-tong was this guy's girlfriend and tried to be like a wife to him, but her adventures took her away so often they barely ever made love, I unfolded the fan-fold at the top, and was amazed that in contrast to the carbon copy page, this was black poster-grade glossy paper and when unfolded was actually a Japanese print. The whole thing has the effect of a Japanese calendar, with the cheap paper calendar part tacked to the bottom of a classy glossy print. The print was more of a very simple cartoon, in the upper right a Japanese man in kimono squatting inside a square. The man is done in goldenrod color on the black background. There are a couple of Japanese characters, also in goldenrod, down the left side. I don't know any of them. As I look at this I laugh and think to myself that I really like this Sung-tong.

And as I think that, there is a commotion by the door behind me and to my left, and as I turn around to look, I hear lots of people saying "Sung-tong!" and then the crowd parts, and in the hallway is a petite Asian woman in a faded black and white kimono, with her arms up in the air and her feet apart, smiling. I tell her if I had known, I would have proposed to her.