Dear Anne,

The summer days are over. I can feel a bit in the air when I step out in the morning. I've found a lovely place beside the Danube where I can paint. There aren't as many artists here as in Paris. I might have a better chance of getting noticed and selling a few paintings.

Paris is crammed with artists. Easels are set up one after the other along the Siene. You can barely breathe between them. I'm in love with Vienna, Anne.

I know. I'm impressionable. I'm instantly in love with everything, even you, Dear Anne. It's just who I am. I've pushed Father from my life and my mind. I try not to think about him because he depresses me. Who wants to get depressed in Vienna? Not me.

Funny, Father was always Father. Never dad or daddy. Mother was mother, not mom or mommy. They weren't exactly affectionate by nature. Perhaps Mother might have shown more affection if it wasn't for Father. I was closer to her. She took me to school and made me peanut butter and banana sandwiches. She would even swing, and we would see who could go higher.

When Father came home, Mother was different. She tightened up. Do you know what I mean. It was as though he had such a great influence over her moods. The entire atmosphere would change. I don't think I ever understood it.

Well, I wasn't going to talk about Father but he's back in my mind. I must dismiss him otherwise I would brood all day about him. I doubt he's located me yet. I would have heard from him if he had.

End of subject.

How are you, Anne? Is life treating you well? You seem up in the air about your new job. Don't you like it? I know it's not ideal, but you must do what you have to do. It'll get you over the hump until you're the next great American novelist. It could happen any day, Anne. Then you'll do book signings, and your book will get made into a movie. I can feel it.

Together we'll turn the world into fire. Isn't that what the kids are saying these days. I'm getting old, Anne. I don't know the slang anymore. I was all about slang in school. How quickly we leave those days behind, and I thought I would never grow up.

That's all for now.

Your happy Corey