Chapter 6: Letter Nine

The guard at the loading door looked at my card and stepped aside without a word.

I walked down a concrete hall and through a curtain onto an empty floor.

The arena was bigger without people in it.

Eli sat on the edge of the stage with his boots hanging over the pit and his guitar across his knees.

He wore the gray cap and no jacket.

A single work light burned over the drum riser, and nobody else was in the building.

"You came alone," he said.

"You said to."

"I didn't think you would."

"I didn't think you'd hand me a card that says T. after what I told you yesterday." My voice shook, so I made it louder. "You promised no letters."

"I did." He set the guitar down on the stage. "I'm going to break that rule once, and then you get to set it again."

I did not move.

I had rehearsed a dozen speeches in the hostel shower, and none of them was any use.

"Why did you draw a coffee ring?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to see what you'd do."

"What did you think I'd do?"

"Leave." His mouth twisted. "Or walk up here and tell me I'd missed something."

I walked up to the barrier and put my hands on it.

"You didn't miss anything," I said. "It's on the lower corner. Under 'nobody.' It's lopsided, because I knocked the mug with my sleeve."

He did not breathe for a moment.

"What's on the back of the page?"

"Nothing. Pencil. I wrote *don't answer this one* and then I erased it, and you can still see the dent."

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