The Return Papers
The Desk
Three small objects that recur in our stories: a pocket ledger stained with road dust, a sheet of motel stationery ruled down the middle, and an envelope left unsealed so a friend could refuse what was inside.
Summer 1972, along the desert highway
Annotated Road Ledger
The pocket ledger page from the 1972 desert walk, where the Correspondent crossed out his boast of needing no one.
October 1975, west of El Paso
Two-Column Motel Stationery
The sheet of motor-lodge paper from October 1975 where the word COMPLETE was struck through to make room for Column II.
Kept in a kitchen drawer
The Letter with an Unsealed Return
Twelve pages of earnest spiritual counsel, accompanied by the unsealed return envelope that allowed a friend to decline them.