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“Missives” by Madison Scott-Clary (read by the author and Dralen)
The first story of Pride Month is “Missives” by Madison Scott-Clary, whose graphomania often gets the better of her. She’s the author of several books, with her latest, Toledot, currently in the process of being read for a podcast at anchor.fm/post-self. You can find more of her stories on makyo.ink.
When an exchange of love letters becomes perilous, love must either find a way to bloom in secret, or wither.
Read by the author herself, and by Dralen, the Dapper Dragonfox.
Read for you by Rob MacWolf — werewolf hitchhiker.
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https://thevoice.dog/episode/missives-by-madison-scott-clary
Transcript
You’re listening to Pride Month on The Voice of Dog.
Speaker:This is Rob MacWolf, your fellow traveler,
Speaker:and Today’s story is “Missives”
Speaker:by Madison Scott-Clary,
Speaker:whose graphomania often gets the better of her.
Speaker:She’s the author of several books, with her latest, Toledot,
Speaker:currently in the process of being read for a podcast
Speaker:at anchor.
Speaker:anchor.fm/post-self. You can find more of her stories
Speaker:on makyo.ink.
Speaker:Words are hardly the only language.
Speaker:There is, for example, the language of flowers, an old-fashioned custom by which lovers could send messages concealed in gifts of bouquets. For example:
Speaker:A Rhododendron might be a warning of danger, while a Primrose could mean
Speaker:“I cannot live without you.”
Speaker:White lilies stood for "Purity"
Speaker:and Motherwort would mean "Concealed Love.
Speaker:Love." For a more practical example,
Speaker:read by the author herself, and by Dralen, the Dapper Dragonfox.
Speaker:Please enjoy “Missives”
Speaker:by Madison Scott-Clary
Speaker:Sir, If it please you, I write concerning our last meeting one week and six days ago
Speaker:at Mister G-’s manor,
Speaker:wherein we spent a happy hour discussing the finer points of his garden.
Speaker:You requested that I write back upon returning home
Speaker:and I find myself with
Speaker:unanswered questions.
Speaker:You asked about the maiden’s hair and I replied,
Speaker:out of haste,
Speaker:that I found it pretty,
Speaker:but perhaps too much to occupy the entirety of one’s garden.
Speaker:On further consideration,
Speaker:I have found that there is a thing of beauty involved in the simple maiden’s hair fern.
Speaker:The stem, I have decided,
Speaker:traces a most delicate arc, and the leaves describe a softness that I find lacking in
Speaker:many other such plants.
Speaker:In addition, you asked about the gardenias;
Speaker:I found them to be quite splendid,
Speaker:though I was initially taken aback by their appearance,
Speaker:so strikingly vivid,
Speaker:that I was taken aback by their hue and intensity.
Speaker:I know you’ve an eye for the bright,
Speaker:but I worry a touch that it was out of place.
Speaker:May I instead draw your attention to the gloxinia?
Speaker:I think it quite beautiful, though it be crouched lower than the rest.
Speaker:Knowing the keenness of your gaze,
Speaker:I trust that you saw it as well,
Speaker:though I hadn’t the chance to point it out at the time.
Speaker:Please do write me back with your thoughts, I remain curious. Yours,
Speaker:V. V., Jr. My dear fox,
Speaker:I was surprised and delighted to be greeted with your letter today, for I had feared that I was too forward in asking to continue our conversation in such a setting.
Speaker:The hour had grown late, however, by the time we were free of our duties,
Speaker:and I had much travel before me, and my hasty parting was in no way a reflection on you.
Speaker:I find your observations astute
Speaker:and in line with my estimation of you as a person.
Speaker:Knowing that, I say:
Speaker:Tho’ the flow’r may bloom ere long and night recede unto the dawn,
Speaker:so yet may love’s embrace grow fond and yet be spoilt upon the wan.
Speaker:For, as I’m sure you well know, too much water on the gardenia flower causes the soft white of the blossom to turn brown and discolor.
Speaker:Even such perfection of God’s creation as the flower be spoiled by too much of what is good for it!
Speaker:Thus it was that I had to depart in haste,
Speaker:though I found our time together so enjoyable.
Speaker:For that, a thousand apologies are in order.
Speaker:Though you declined to quote any of your favorite verse during our stroll through the garden,
Speaker:I hope that you do not mind the wandering words of your companion.
Speaker:A coyote finds much on his mind,
Speaker:surrounded by by books.
Speaker:Books! And yet there I was, enjoying a walk above all else.
Speaker:I’ve distracted myself, though.
Speaker:You mention the gloxinia,
Speaker:and I too think that such are quite the sight to behold.
Speaker:I don’t believe that it was the type of blossom to be seen by any who had passed by,
Speaker:so a fox’s gaze must be singularly acute.
Speaker:I will not hesitate to say that I think such flowers beautiful, as well:.
Speaker:How telling it is the things that we find pleasing to the eye!
Speaker:Alas, I must draw the line across the page here,
Speaker:but I do hope that you write back.
Speaker:Although our words be brief, so too will they sustain us.
Speaker:Yours in confidence,
Speaker:A coyote. Coyote, You speak of confidence,
Speaker:and although I cannot guarantee the security of my own words, I shall write to you in the same spirit.
Speaker:To walk with you in the garden that day was
Speaker:a rare joy. Though I spend my life in a comfortable home,
Speaker:I do indeed spend it.
Speaker:I feel the coinage of my Self slipping away by the hour, entertained
Speaker:only by my father’s attendants and the scant few visitors who pay us note.
Speaker:I could scarcely hope to escape the stifling manner of it all
Speaker:by a stroll through G-’s lovely garden.
Speaker:And yet there I was greeted by a most curious sight:
Speaker:a coyote had laid down his affected cane and knelt to inspect the flowers.
Speaker:I approached slowly and noisily to make my presence known,
Speaker:then squatted most ungracefully beside him to see the blossom at hand.
Speaker:I had no idea that the time that
Speaker:I would nearly cause my father embarrassment by dallying so long in the garden
Speaker:rather than being at hand.
Speaker:That coyote —
Speaker:that delightful companion — rescued me from the drudgery
Speaker:for not one, I’m told,
Speaker:but nearly two and a half hours! Oh,
Speaker:the way my father’s tail bristled when he confronted me.
Speaker:Chastened, I could not laugh, though
Speaker:I do now. I think that we had both wound up there in that garden for similar reason.
Speaker:Neither of us wanted to be at that party.
Speaker:I was bored of the routine,
Speaker:while you were repulsed.
Speaker:There were, I think,
Speaker:not enough books there to keep your mind active,
Speaker:no pens to keep your paws busy.
Speaker:And yet we talked.
Speaker:We talked of flowers,
Speaker:we talked of the day, we talked of the news.
Speaker:This all provided a pleasant afternoon, my friend,
Speaker:but do not think that I did not pick up on your words at the time.
Speaker:Your talk of maiden’s hair, that flowing fern,
Speaker:the plant of a secret bond.
Speaker:Your words of gardenias with
Speaker:their hints of secret affections and attractions.
Speaker:For I, too, know the language of flowers.
Speaker:I know also of the language of motion and of movement,
Speaker:for do not imagine that one of my station not be schooled in such.
Speaker:Our steps steadily
Speaker:began to move in time with each other,
Speaker:and those casual brushes of elbow to elbow, paw to paw,
Speaker:fingers to fur were not missed.
Speaker:I must admit that
Speaker:I didn’t so much as “catch you out”
Speaker:as gleefully reciprocate in this newfound closeness. Ah,
Speaker:it makes my ears light up to say so,
Speaker:but I miss that, dear coyote!
Speaker:It has been two weeks,
Speaker:and I’ve been taught that this is an appropriate amount of time to have passed before requesting the presence of a visitor once more.
Speaker:Would you, dear coyote,
Speaker:be so kind as to bless us with your presence four days hence,
Speaker:on Friday the fifth?
Speaker:Sincerely, Fox Fox,
Speaker:My goodness! Who knew that the fox had so many words within him!
Speaker:A pen, some paper, and a promise of confidence is all it took.
Speaker:You know, of course, that I jest.
Speaker:Walking with you in the garden that day was truly a delight,
Speaker:but I could tell that your tongue would be a long time in loosening.
Speaker:Don’t think that I am unschooled in the language of interaction simply because of my low station.
Speaker:Your words shall always stay safe with me, dear fox,
Speaker:the confidence is absolute.
Speaker:Let us speak further on the garden walk of some weeks past, then.
Speaker:You divine my intentions correctly when I bring up the maiden’s hair and gardenias.
Speaker:I find it fascinating that one such as yourself might even know to pick up on such allusions,
Speaker:never mind be able to bandy them back in turn.
Speaker:Gloxinia indeed! Could it be that you do truly feel this love at first sight that
Speaker:so many talk about?
Speaker:I’m sure I do not know.
Speaker:However, I must admit myself flattered all the same,
Speaker:that a pious and gentle critter such as yourself would stoop to spend a carefree afternoon with a poor poet
Speaker:and flower fancier!
Speaker:What is it, then, that you saw in me that was worth your time?
Speaker:It is only fair that I tease out your answer by providing something in return:
Speaker:Though ev’ry climax approach a denouement And ev’ry dawn a night,
Speaker:Ev’ry moment worth sharing May be worth stealing.
Speaker:Were it with you, Delay, then, the morn.
Speaker:In you, I saw that last cold breath of night before the morning,
Speaker:the promise of something spectacular.
Speaker:I catch myself wondering if it was something that is integral and permanent in you —
Speaker:will you always provide a glimpse of a bright day to come,
Speaker:or will you forever hover on the edge of darkness?
Speaker:There is no small part of me which is eager to see,
Speaker:but the most of me would enjoy the wait.
Speaker:Will some day to break within you,
Speaker:or will our affections be strictly something of dreams?
Speaker:Longings and pining that will never cease and yet cause the fire in the hearth to flag and
Speaker:yet keep the room all the warmer?
Speaker:Do tell. C- Dear coyote,
Speaker:What say you to my invitation?
Speaker:Your words are more than pretty,
Speaker:they make a poor fox’s very being yearn for a time when
Speaker:he may once again hear them with his own ears.
Speaker:However, they certainly do not address the issue at hand!
Speaker:Will you bless us with your presence?
Speaker:It is too late for the fifth, I fear, but perhaps you may join us for dinner on the twelfth?
Speaker:On that day that we spent together in the garden,
Speaker:I cannot help but remember most clearly
Speaker:as we were called away to our places
Speaker:for the evening’s festivities,
Speaker:when you laid your hand atop mine and said simply,
Speaker:“Come”. Perhaps it is something weak within my heart,
Speaker:but it is that touch, that smile,
Speaker:and that simple word after so many
Speaker:that touched me so deeply. That is what I
Speaker:long for again. So once more,
Speaker:“come”. It is I who am asking this time,
Speaker:and do not dodge the question again!
Speaker:Fox My delightful fox,
Speaker:Ahhh, is that then the dawn I spy approaching?
Speaker:Perhaps our dear fox does has some day within him yet!
Speaker:I find it singular that a book so quiet as this may lay itself open wide and be read by those with even the poorest eyes.
Speaker:If it were open the wider,
Speaker:if it were more plain,
Speaker:I do not think that I would be so pleased.
Speaker:And were it shut, were it hidden away,
Speaker:I think I should feel left out of the whole experience.
Speaker:As with the dawn, however, you approach slowly,
Speaker:carefully at first, and then with a surprising suddenness you breach the darkness and begin casting shadows.
Speaker:There is no hiding from a dawn such as this.
Speaker:Tho’ the heart may quicken –
Speaker:Tho’ the tongue may lap –
Speaker:I shall sup no greater meal Than thy gift entrancing
Speaker:You know as well as I that touch is not casual, but calculated.
Speaker:And that word, lonesome after so many had been spilled in that garden,
Speaker:was naught to be ignored.
Speaker:I say this not out of boast, though
Speaker:I know that I did well in making my intentions clear,
Speaker:but out of the fact that I, too, am left without a paw in mine.
Speaker:Desire is a tumultuous thing,
Speaker:and many an hour of sleep was lost to the remembered closeness.
Speaker:Ah, would that there had been more…
Speaker:You’ve answered my question, then.
Speaker:Now to yours. A dinner, you say?
Speaker:I humbly accept, and shall
Speaker:“come” at your bidding.
Speaker:The twelfth it is,
Speaker:please do expect me before tea, that we may spend some time recounting the virtues of flowers together.
Speaker:With the utmost fondness,
Speaker:C- My dearest coyote,
Speaker:I write hastily, as you have just left and I am
Speaker:to be going to bed and not up writing letters to you,
Speaker:if I am to keep from arousing suspicions.
Speaker:This must take the guise of a thank-you note —
Speaker:and it is! I want nothing more than to thank you right now.
Speaker:Thank you, thank you, and again thank you!
Speaker:To spend such an evening — to consider
Speaker:spending many such more —
Speaker:I do not hesitate to call myself smitten!
Speaker:I trust that you found the food palatable,
Speaker:for you certainly ate more than me or my father,
Speaker:and I fear the servants may even feel shorted tonight.
Speaker:I am happy to see someone enjoying with such gusto, however,
Speaker:and to walk the grounds with you
Speaker:both before and after the meal was
Speaker:more than a delight.
Speaker:You have such an eye for softness. Things that
Speaker:might miss the normal gaze, a hidden globe of clover here,
Speaker:the shy peeking of a late blossom of witch hazel there.
Speaker:It was such a delight
Speaker:to share both your company and your mind,
Speaker:to share a touch of paws
Speaker:or a kiss upon the whiskers.
Speaker:The kiss! You were so shy to move, so bashful after, I felt my heart breaking in two!
Speaker:And so was I: my stammering response must’ve given a poor showing,
Speaker:and no bravery in my heart let me return the gesture.
Speaker:The next we see each other, I shall make it
Speaker:up to you double and treble! Tens of kisses! Hundreds!
Speaker:I do hope that we will have the chance to spend further time with each other.
Speaker:As the primrose, I cannot
Speaker:truly live without you.
Speaker:As motherwort says, perhaps
Speaker:one fox’s love for a coyote ought best be concealed.
Speaker:I care not. A fox who would consider himself yours.
Speaker:To a fox whose beauty is surpassed by none,
Speaker:You have done such an eloquent job of thanking me for the evening together that I,
Speaker:for once, find myself nearly at a loss for words.
Speaker:The food was indeed wonderful,
Speaker:but paled in comparison to the delightful company.
Speaker:I found you and your father both well read, and keen with words.
Speaker:The walk within your own garden,
Speaker:around your splendid grounds, was not a thing that I will soon forget.
Speaker:I must address that kiss.
Speaker:I confess myself a shyer person than I perhaps present,
Speaker:and I found myself self-flagellating within my mind after the act,
Speaker:worried that I had perhaps misread,
Speaker:that I might have overstepped my bounds.
Speaker:To know that we could both blush so much…ah,
Speaker:well that is what will stick most firmly in my memory.
Speaker:To know that one such as yourself may dream of kisses to come,
Speaker:that is what will sustain me for the future.
Speaker:You find me at a disadvantage –
Speaker:Panting and aswish –
Speaker:Would that distance be traversed as easily As hearts t’wards yearning hearts
Speaker:I shall scarcely be able to write a line of verse for the longing that night engendered in me.
Speaker:Or, perhaps I shall be overrun with a words,
Speaker:unable to cease scribbling my poor lines for the desire of yet another small kiss.
Speaker:I fear it shall be the latter,
Speaker:that I am doomed to be forgotten among the countless smitten poets littering the streets with their oversweet verse.
Speaker:In evidence of my restraint,
Speaker:I leave you with only one more word:
Speaker:“again”. A coyote who would call you his own.
Speaker:Dear sir, I write at the behest of my father.
Speaker:It has come to my attention that a discussion of plants in a garden and a subsequent dinner has
Speaker:led to impropriety.
Speaker:The boundaries that are firmly in place by
Speaker:society and God’s law have been
Speaker:overstepped, and we toy with the sin put in place on this Earth by Satan himself.
Speaker:It would be best if
Speaker:we were not to be seen together again.
Speaker:May this final gift of both
Speaker:motherwort and primrose cuttings from our garden sate your desires,
Speaker:and may that be the last we be seen together
Speaker:as my family wills it.
Speaker:V. V., Jr. Reply to the esteemed fox of the household,
Speaker:I must offer my immediate and unconditional apology for any slight or dissatisfaction. It was my intent only to build a relationship of trust and kindness between equals,
Speaker:lovers of the word and of life.
Speaker:That my actions have caused pain and discomfort by encroaching too closely on your person
Speaker:causes me great pain in turn
Speaker:and is chief among my regrets.
Speaker:I will expect no reply in return,
Speaker:but let my poor words stand in place of any further deed
Speaker:that I may do to you and your family.
Speaker:But by your request, you shall not hear from this repentant soul again.
Speaker:A rose, single, now blooming may indeed bless the stem,
Speaker:yet are not roses clipp’d and shown?
Speaker:Undoubted ‘tis a blessing to them who receive such a gift!
Speaker:Yet now unmade is the flow’r which adorns thy mantle with its grace,
Speaker:and withers, however slowly,
Speaker:by the hour until ‘tis faded to nothing
Speaker:and dust, though some scent remain forever
Speaker:amidst the must. I take well the meaning of your letter and the final gift of flowers within.
Speaker:With sincerest contrition,
Speaker:C. L. This was “Missives” by Madison Scott-Clary,
Speaker:read for you by the author, as “C,”
Speaker:and by Dralen, the dapper dragonfox,
Speaker:as “Fox.” You can find more stories on the web
Speaker:at thevoice.dog,
Speaker:or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker:Happy Pride, and Thank you for listening to The Voice of Dog.
