#stripey today like her old drawings

[wis-art]

head in the clouds thinking of her

[alastgoodnight]

Hm. Now that was a little odd. There was a letter in front of the letterbox, like the box had spat it out. The envelope was white with a coloured triangle in each corner to frame it: red, blue, yellow, and orange. It was simply addressed to "New Friend", written in a slightly blunted red pencil. Wouldn't hurt to open it.

The handwriting on the inside was the same as on the envelope, and it appeared to only hold a folded sheet of paper.

-

"Dear Stranger,

I was talking to Eddie today and I said I didn't know who else to write a letter to. I'd written a letter to all my friends. Eddie said I should write to look for a 'pen pal'. I thought he meant that I needed a pen to be my friend, but it actually means that someone would write to me. I like phone calls, but I also like letters too.

Hello stranger. My name is Wally Darling. I live in Welcome Home. It is a small town where all my friends live. This is what I look like."

An arrow pointed to a somewhat childish drawing of a yellow person with swirly blue hair, a matching cardigan, and colourful, stripey trousers. There was a smile on the drawing's face.

"I am a painter. I love to paint or draw. There are so many things to look at. Is there anything you like to do? Do you have a job or class you go to?

Please write back. My full address is: Wally Darling, Home, The Neighborhood.

Wally."

(heythereneighbor - sorry but the concept of a letterbox was just too cute to pass)

Oh, that was odd. Naomi was quite used to the letterbox having letters in it - usually in response to her own - but this time, the little door hung wide open, the letter propped against it and politely waiting for her when she came upstairs. Her eyes widened when she saw the bright primary colors - colors she didn't recognize from other responses. This was someone new!

Handling the colorful envelope with the same care she would an official document, she read through it slowly, feeling a small smile pull at her face as she kept going. The language was simple, but charming - more importantly, someone had written to her first, something that never happened. Usually the letters she got were responses to her own, so this was a charming surprise.

The letter itself was fairly simple, so she should start with a simple response. Naomi grabbed a sheet of her own paper - the white, lined stationary with a frame of hydrangeas in purple and blue - and started to write.

"Dear Wally Darling, Hello! I'm the person who got your letter, so I guess this makes me your pen pal. It's nice to meet you! My name is Naomi Sato, but everyone calls me Miss Naomi. I'll draw a picture of myself on the back of this page, since it's full of lines. I live in the Lullaby Lane Library. It's a very old building-"

Creak!

"Okay, I'll change it, my goodness!"

"It's a building that's been left by itself for quite some time, so I'm working hard to help get it all ready for people to visit again. I live here with a couple of friends, Willa and Rags, and my friend Arlo lives on the hill behind us. Right now my job is fixing up the library. The inside's all done, but the outside needs new paint and a garden. It's a lot of work, but it's fun!"

What did she like to do? Hm, keep it simple. Explaining a podcast would take more pages.

I like to read, and clean, and tell stories. My favorite kind of stories are fairy tales, and my favorite kind of reading is when I get to share stories with other people. Do you have any stories you like, Wally? Thank you for writing to me. I'll give you my full address so you can write to me again: Miss Naomi, Lullaby Lane Library, Lullaby Lane. I hope you have a good day! Sincerely, Miss Naomi."

It was only right to match Wally's drawing with one of her own. Using a small number of colored pencils, she drew herself as best she could - still a small, simple drawing, with line features and blocky colors, but she liked how the jacket came out. Carefully the letter was folded and put in a seaglass-blue envelope, sealed shut with a sticker of an orange balloon. Into the letter box it went, no doubt to appear wherever it needed to be.