Brian sat looking at the blank piece of notebook paper in front of him. He was a pretty decent writer. He could always do fine when interpreting a work by John Keats, or Samuel Coleridge or any other of the English Romantics. He always squeaked by on original poetry assignments. He wasn't writing poetry at the moment, though. He was just writing a letter—or attempting to at this point. He looked at the wall that his desk was up against and fixed himself on one object.

There was a photograph of him with his arm around a female and a few of his other academic club friends that went. She had fine, shoulder-length brown hair; she had on a bright yellow raincoat, as if she were expecting rain. Brian was dressed in an old sweater with green and red horizontal stripes. He remembered his dad gave it to him for one of his birthdays, and that it was cold around Niagara Falls in early Spring. Her name was Katherine—the Jane Doe he told Bender about on Saturday. They met at an aeronautical expo, which their math club adviser took them to the previous year. The guy was nuts about planes. He especially making large models of World War II-era planes.

Katherine was like no other girl he knew at the time. She really enjoyed reading a lot of older literature. She enjoyed building models out of matchsticks. She wanted to be an architect or an engineer one day. Brian felt totally at ease with her. She didn't mind his mumbling, or how he often rushed things when he was nervous or excited. She was a competitor in her school's math club. Brian was quite impressed that a girl could solve polynomials in record time. Katherine wished that they would go to some ivy league school together in the future.

He wrote her monthly. Now it was time for this month's letter. He sighed and started writing.

Dear Katherine,

How is New York? I really miss you. How did your math competition go? I bet you did great! No one can tackle Euclidean proofs like you. Sometime next month the school's science fair will be starting. I'm not sure what, or if I should enter this year. Any ideas on what I should enter.

Anyways, what I really wanted to tell you is that I'm seeing someone. Allison is a girl from school. She's no master of geometry like you, but I'm sure you guys would get along if you ever met. She's been able o help me through some awkward times right now. I hope you won't be upset with me. You're really great, Kat. I hope we can still be the best of friends. Who knows? Maybe I could bring Allison up to Niagara this Summer? Let me know what you think. I'll probably elaborate more on these problems I spoke of next month. Until then, I look forward to hearing from you.

Your friend,

Brian

Brian packaged the letter and addressed it. He put a stamp in the corner, and put it on his desk. He put a cassette tape in the black tape deck and pressed play to resume it's playing position. Brian just sat next to his stereo and listened to Allison by one of his idols, Elvis Costello, and thought of his favorite basket case.