Letters to Ivy

Chapter 07|

Chapter 07| Scratch N' Sniff

Mom asked me to join her for coffee today. I agreed. A little mother-daughter time never hurt anyone. I also need something to distract myself from the clue. It's been two days and I still haven't figured it out.

Mom opens the front door, smiling her usual soft smile. "Ivy, come in, come in." She motions for me to enter.

"Hey, Mom," I say as I strip off my jacket,

Mom leads me to the living room where she's already set out a plate of biscotti, and mugs of coffee. "So, how have you been?" I ask her as I take a sip of my coffee.

"Good, good, and yourself? How have you been holding up?"

I shrug, grabbing a biscotti, before dipping it in my coffee. "I've been fine. How was your afternoon with Mrs. Hayne and the rest of her minions."

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked." She chirps as she gets ready to tell the story. "You will not believe the things the women at these things say." Mom starts. "So get this, at Mindy Doyle's last spring picnic—" and that is where I stopped listening. I tried to pay attention, and I know I'm the one who brought it up, but I just can't stop wondering about the clue Callum had given me. A sheet of scratch 'n sniff sticker? What could that possibly mean?

"Ivy? Ivy, dear, hello?" Mom snaps her fingers in front of my face, bringing me out of my thoughts.

I smile sheepishly at her. "Sorry, continue,"

She shakes her head. "No, forget that. What's wrong, Ivy? Is it Callum? Oh, Iv—"

"No, it's—well, yes, and no. I've been getting better with it. He's helping me, Mom." I pause, smiling. "Oh, he knows me so well," I whisper quietly.

Mom smiles back. "Oh, Darling, who?"

"Callum. It's these—he's been leaving me letters. All around town." I pause and pull out the most recent envelope from my purse. "I found the first one the day we decided I would look through the closet. These letters, they're like my coping mechanism. He's helping me, just like he always has." I chuckle softly as I wipe away the tears from under my eyes. "He's left me these clues. Hints to help me find the next one."

Mom raises an eyebrow. "And," she beckons for me to continue.

"I can't figure this one out." I slump back in my chair.

"Well, maybe I can help."

I nod and pull the stickers out from the envelope. "Scratch 'n sniff stickers. The next letter is with whoever they belong to, and I have no idea who that could possibly be." Handing the sheet over to her, Mom inspects it, and then, she laughs. "What's so funny?" I ask as I sit back up.

She shakes her head, her laughter dying down. "Isn't it obvious?" I give her a confused look. "These are probably Gina's. She's a kindergarten teacher. She always has a couple in her bag."

Why didn't I think of that?

"Oh my god. I—I have to meet her. I—um, Mom is it okay if I..."

She chuckles. "Of course, rain check then?"

I nod. "That would be great. Next week?" She nods. "Thank you so much," I say as I scramble out of my seat. "I love you, Mom," I kiss her cheek quickly before grabbing my jacket, and with a quick goodbye, head back out to my car.

+ + +

"Ivy? What a surprise, come in." Gina says as she opens the door wide for me.

I offer her an apologetic smile. "Sorry for coming without a notice. I just—I really need to talk to you." I explain.

Mrs. Wilson shakes her head. "It's alright Ivy. You don't need to ask. If anything, you don't come here often enough. Now, please, come in, sit," Gina seats us both in her living room. "Snacks?" She smoothes out her coral pink sweater, getting ready to head towards the kitchen.

I shake my head. "I'm okay." Gina seats herself in the clean white futon across from me. "I'm—uh, actually here for Callum." At the mention of his name her posture changes. "You see, I have these letters, and they're all from Callum. And he mentioned—" I cut myself short upon seeing the sad smile gracing Mrs. Wilson's lips.

"So, you finally found them." She mumbles, brushing her blonde hair out from her eyes as she continued to smile. "I'm sorry you had to find out about Callum this way. He wanted to tell you, he really did, but he couldn't do that to you. He didn't want you to stress." Wait.

"You knew?" I ask. Gina knew this whole time about Callum, yet she didn't bother to tell me about any of it?

"I have the letter in my room. I'll just be a moment." Gina says, ignoring my previous question, before striding off down the hall.

She returns with the letter, not a minute later. The moment Mrs. Wilson hands me the envelope, I tear it open. Hastily, I pull out the letter and then begin to read.

Dear Ivy,

Although I'd much rather not talk about my cancer, I just wanted to clear something up. Sorry I didn't tell you about my cancer first. Please don't be mad at Mom. She wasn't supposed to know either. She found my reports at home. I was going to tell you first. Mom even tried to convince me to tell you sooner, but the time was never right. Okay, and that's it for the cancer talk.

Let me explain the stickers. We were both finishing up our service hours and decided to help my Mom out with her kindergarten class. Mom gave each of us a sheet of scratch 'n sniff stickers to pass out to the kids. You gave me a creepy banana sticker, and I gave you a grape sticker. Overall, it had been a good day, minus that lollipop-hair situation, but that's a story for another day.

Your next clue, as usual, is in the envelope. Look under our favorite spot. It's an easy one, you're welcome.

Love,

Callum

I set the letter down beside me on the small wooden side table, before reaching into the envelope.

I pull out a card. It's two cards—tickets actually—that are painted dark blue, with dots of gold and silver towards the top. 'Night of a Thousand Lights' is written underneath it in fancy cursive. Towards the bottom, 'Senior class of 2013' is written in white, as well as the date, along with some other information. But right in the middle, in large gold cursive letters is, 'prom'.