Dear Jo,

I most sincerely apologise for my error. It is one that went unnoticed by you but I assumed you were male. How could I have made such a boob, I mean your name is female, Jo, or Josephine as you have informed me, and not Joe as I thought.

Thank you for your quick response. You tell me you’re intrigued by my name so I will tell you.

Family tradition goes that an ancestor, on my mother’s side, was a Native American. She wanted to name her first born in ‘the way of her ancestors;’ after the first thing she saw after my birth, something like that. I like to think she was at home, by the lake, when I was placed in her arms, and she glanced briefly at a wedge of swans that had taken flight. Hmm. Nice, but not the truth.

I was born a week early. It was a surprise to Mother but not to those around who thought my birth, in the kitchen, no shock at all. She was always fidgeting; she couldn’t sit still. Mother had been preparing the Sunday roast at the time and true to her word, she turned to look, and what she saw was a large, yellow, box of matches on the kitchen table. The makers? Swan.

As you can see, I’m far from conventional, and nor shall I be, unless called to be so. My ways may be strange but they are effect.

You are correct in thinking that meeting face to face will only be in extreme circumstances. Do not destroy or file our letters, but rather keep them in bundles in the PO Box; they are pieces of evidence, our security. Yes, I do require that you acknowledge an unwritten contract of trust, that you fulfil our mutual contribution to the mission, no matter how long it may take. It is a commitment, but one that’s worthwhile.

Yours

Swan