The Envelope

Sofia loved her new apartment. She had had to cry and beg and generally make herself obnoxious to convince her parents to help her buy it. But she did have a job and she could pay the mortgage, she just needed a little parental underpinning to make it really happen. After all, they had a house in the country and in the suburbs, surely they could see why she would want at least one.

Of course, it was barely a house, just 395 square feet, but so beautiful, three million kroner, a pittance to be able to live in downtown Stockholm. It was in a traditional 19th century building, but inside it was pure 21st century, thanks to Ikea and her own good taste. Here she could breathe more easily. A twenty-five year old lawyer cannot live with her parents, she exclaimed to herself as she sat at her own little kitchen table.

What was that? Something white had been slid under the door. She reached down for what turned out to be an elegant cream colored envelope, sealed with no markings on it anywhere. She opened it and found a blank sheet of paper neatly folded inside. Just like the envelope, it was thick, expensive paper. She felt a frisson of fear. Who sent this? A stalker who couldn't write, or, worse, a stalker who wouldn't name the terrible things he would do to her. Suddenly being alone in her own apartment didn't seem so glamorous.

She sat down again at her one table and stared at the envelope and the letter with no words. Then, her cell phone rang. It was her dad, who had been most set against her moving out. She had been angry with him, but now his voice would be a comfort.

 "Hi, how are you? Did you get my letter?" he said.

"What letter?" she replied.

"The one under your door of course!"

"Dad, how could you?, she answered. "You put the envelope under my door? Why? You scared me half to death. Why didn't you write anything on it?"

He laughed, "I'm sorry, I didn't plan to scare you. My father did the same for me when I got my first job and my first apartment. It's for you to write your future on, not me. I just hope it will be a happy one!"

She smiled and picked up her pen.