Page 102 of Possibly Texas

“Who do you think it is?” I mumbled.

“Hm?”

“Who do you think is really sending the letters to Shirlene?” I asked after clearing my throat. “Like, do you think it’s someone in town? In Possibly? Do you think there’s a real Shirlene? Is that her real name? Is it some type of performance art? It’s just so odd that there has to be something going on with these letters, right?”

I punctuated my sentence with a jab of my thumb over my shoulder at the wall.

Sofia looked amused.

“You know,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest, “we’ve been talking about that since the day the first one arrived.”

“Really?”

She nodded slowly. “All-a-us in town. Is it one of us? Is one of us in love with another one of us and just doesn’t know how to say it? Is one of us pulling the whole town’s leg? Who is the most likely suspect if it is one of us? You know?”

“And?”

“We don’t have the foggiest idea,” she said, then started cackling and slapping at her knee. “We’ve all been the suspect at one point or another.”

“Well, crap.”

She gave an exaggerated shrug. “Sorry. You’re fairly new to town or you’d know that we’ve been theorizing over the letter writer’s identity forever. And who Shirlene really is. Does she exist? Is that a fake name or a metaphor? No one knows. And if they do, they ain’t talkin’.”

With a sigh, I threw my hands up lazily.

Sofia mimicked me and we both laughed.

“Well,” I held the two pieces of mail up, “thanks. I’ll make sure Jack gets these.”

I headed to the door.

“Anytime,” Sofia said. “Tell him I said to not be a stranger. He could make his way downtown every now and then instead of hiding out over there. It’s not a far walk.”

I grinned at her over my shoulder and she gave me a wink, then I was stepping out into the August heat. The teal clapboard siding of the post office shone like a precious gem in the bright midday sun. Sofia kept the post office so cold that the summer heat was even more oppressive than on a typical day. Even a few minutes inside the post office would make a person forget how hot summer in Texas could be. Then, once they got outside, it would nearly knock a person over.

The sun was committing assault against the world.

A quick flick of my eyes, and I spotted Levi Lee slumped beside the door of Starbuck’s. At first, my instinct was to rush over and make sure he was okay. Especially since his green-screen suit was in a wadded pile on the ground next to him. Seeing Levi Lee sitting there in his boxer briefs against the hull of the ship was a reason for concern.

However, after a second, Levi Lee’s head turned lazily and he spotted me. His arm rose languidly and he waved at me, a small smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

“Someone turned the thermostat to Hell!” He waved at me.

I chuckled.

“Yeah!” I responded. “You might want to come visit Sofia and cool off, man!”

Levi Lee nodded and slowly pulled himself up off the ground. When he was standing beside the door of Starbuck’s, clad only in his underwear, I looked away quickly. He had sweated through his underwear and they were clinging to him salaciously.

“Put on some pants first, Levi Lee!” I suggested.

I was met with silence for a moment.

“Oh! Good advice!”

I just imagined the guy looking down to find what I’d seen before realizing that, even nude, he couldn’t have been more indecent. How a man could…be like Levi Lee…and so unaware of how he was…built…was beyond me. Obviously, no one had ever told the guy that he should keep baggy loose-fitting pants on at all times. Then again, everyone’s tolerance and acceptance of such things was different. In fact, it wasn’t that it necessarily bothered me.

Levi Lee’s physique, I mean.