She studied the yellowed envelope in her hand. It had coffee stains on the front and when she turned it over there was a smudge in the left corner that could have perhaps been strawberry jam.
Scrawled in the center of the envelope
458
_17__
473
She opened the envelope to find a single sheet of onion skin paper. The double spaced message was typed on an old eletric typewriter which had double typed the e's.
Wee reegreet to inform you that your salamandeer is deead.
She stopped to consider this a moment and then continued to read.
Wee will assasinatee your peenguin at 2:00 on Tueesday if you do not drop your pockeet at the reed phonee booth on 7th and Park.
She glanced up at the clock and realized it was already noon. She grabbed her purse and ran out the door to catch the 12:15 trolley uptown.
Sadly she discovered that 7th and Park did not intersect and at that corner there was only a blue phone booth. She considered dropping her pocket there but then changed her mind. It was already 2:15 so it made little difference anyway.
She sighed when she realized how little sense this whole day had made and then suddenly it came to her, the sum of 458 and 17 was actually 475.
Then she woke with a start, looked around the room to get her bearings and thought perhaps she had been reading way too much Lewis Carroll.
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