The Postcard

Monday, Mom walked into the house carrying a pile of mail. Head down, she sifted through it as she walked slowly to the dining room table. There she stopped.

"You have some mail," she announced as she continued to sift, dropping some mail in a pile on the table and keeping the rest in her hands.

Moments later, I stood before the pile, my own hands sifting the envelopes. "College for Anne... College for Anne... Bill... College for Anne... Ohh! Postcard! I wonder who it is from?"

Quickly, I sorted the rest of my mail to see what was really for me. Then I flipped the postcard over to see who it was for. It was addressed:

Famous Author Beth Durkee

I smirked as I thought, "Ahh.. Somebody has been reading my blog and wants to help me with my daughter. Now which of my two fans is this from?"

It is interesting to note that as a "famous author" I actually know both of my fans by name. Sure enough, the postcard was from one of them. I read it, shaking my head and smiling for the support to my claim of "fame." I set the card back on the table, on top of my other envelope (the bill), then I went about my business.

A while later, Anne came into the room. "You have mail," I announced. "It is on the table."

Being a teenager, Anne is still excited to receive mail. She made a beeline for the table. There, she picked up her stack of college mail. Standing with it in her hands, she began discarding envelope after envelope, throwing them back onto the table. Then she spied my postcard.

"Oh! A postcard!" she exclaimed. (Like mother, like daughter!) Stepping back to the table, she picked up the card and started to read it.

She read aloud, "To your majesty the Queen??"

"Of authors!" I added. "Read the whole thing. Don't just stop in the middle! To your majesty the Queen OF AUTHORS."

Anne rolled her eyes. "Is this from . . . ." She looked back at the card to scan for the sender's name. (Anne also knows both of my fans by name.)

"Yep. It is," she droned. "I bet she wrote that for me, didn't she?"

Looking again to the card, she began again, "To your majesty the Queen of authors --For your daughter."

Anne huffed out a snort as she threw the card back on the table. I tried, honestly I did, but it was impossible for me to suppress a snicker. You see, what the fan who sent the postcard (fan #1) could not possibly have forseen is the several sentences my other fan spoke to Anne on my behalf on Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday at lunch, fan #2 made a point to come over to my table in my favorite buffet (it is my favorite because the workers there think I am a locally famous author) as Anne and I ate lunch. Putting her arm around the girl, fan #2 said, "You just don't realize it because she is your mother, but your mom is an author. She touches people's lives and is going to touch people's lives through her writing that you won't ever even know about."

As Fan #2 remarked to Anne, my writing has touched lives that I do not even know about. With just one book in one library (and I have a book in two libraries), there is no way to ever know how many lives I have touched. That is really something. Does it qualify me as "famous?" Well, perhaps not yet.

Moments after she threw the postcard onto the kitchen table with a huff, Anne plopped onto the living room sofa. As she did so, she remarked, "I am never going to live this down, am I?"

"Oh, sure you will. People have short memories," I said.

But as I was saying those words, I was thinking others, "Ahh... So you begin to see, my young apprentice? Always humor your mother."

NOTE: Although my daughter still seems to be an unbeliever in my fame, I would like to take this opportunity to thank both of my devout fans, my son, and a handful of complete strangers for their support in upholding my claims. Anyone else who enjoys my blog or my books and would like to send fan mail, my current mailing address can be found on my "About" page. (Thanks.)