by Nayt Rundquist

Bostwick Giles Worthington finds himself unable to attend tonight’s gala at your glorious estate but wishes his darling friends gaiety without him. Don’t allow poor Bostwick’s unfortunate downturn in luck prevent you finding joy in each other’s company, plotting adventures for the year to come.

Waylaid now at Our Benevolent Lady of Armistice, in full-body traction, he’d been courageously racing steam-carriages down vendor-packed streets pursuing the glory of StellarPence’s first-brewed coffee.

No others join Bostwick in hospital. Of thirty-odd men, three carriages, and five clockworks also involved, there were no survivors.

Brimming with love,

Bostwick Giles Worthington

Dictated, not read.

Nayt Rundquist (they/them) is Managing Editor of New Rivers Press and teaches Publishing, Creative Writing, Literature, and Composition courses at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Their writing can be found in The Citron Review, X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, Red Weather, Up North Lit, and Etchings, and forthcoming in Unbound: Composing Home. They live just outside of space and time with their artist-jeweler wife and their fifth-dimensional dogs.