Before the Rain

To you, ticket in hand,

Welcome to the Storm Post Office. This letter has been made up like a playbill: elongated Art Deco capitals brushed one stroke at a time on midnight-plum paper, with a small flowing signature beside them. Silver rain lines slant across the page, not quite symmetrical; a single red curtain stands in silhouette in the corner, and along one edge runs a perforated admission stub. It is 1929, the last moment before the rain.

At a moment like this, it helps to remember: "Into each life some rain must fall, / Some days must be dark and dreary." — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Rainy Day (1842)

Tear gently along the dotted line and the curtain rises. The rain has not come yet, and when it does there is shelter here. Whenever you want to write, write to us.

Your seat is kept,

Storm Post Office

1929 · The Eve of the Storm