Three sheets, 33g, deposited at the Halcyon Station censor's office, outgoing, day 54, winter 2189. Addressed: "A. Bar-Sela, c/o any forwarding the station permits." Returned day 58 winter. Routing slip: addressee not on station roster. Restored to held-mail register, entry 4 (see hal-01). The letter was unsealed at deposit; the censor's clerk has noted in the margin of the register that he read it before filing.
A.,
I am writing to any forwarding the station permits because the specific addresses have not worked and I am running out of ways to say where you are.
The first letter I addressed to the Marigold. They returned it: addressee not registered at intake. I went to the Ridgeway-Tani office on dock 4 and asked after the cook's posting on run 88-W. The woman at the counter said crew assignments were the operator's business and if I wished to file a next-of-kin inquiry I could do so at the labour office on deck 3. I have not gone to deck 3. I am not filing that form. Filing that form is for people who have reason to believe something has happened, and I have no reason. I have three returned letters and no reason.
The second I addressed to Tethys Relay, deck 2. They said you were not on the station roster. I asked Mensah — the clerk at the censor's window, not the censor — whether "not on the roster" meant you had never been there or had been there and left. He said the station's reply does not distinguish.
The corridor on 7-C smells the same in winter. You said it would. You said every station smells the same in winter because the air recyclers run the same condensate loop in every corridor they ever built and the only difference is which galley is closest. I said then come home and cook and the corridor will smell like yours. You laughed and said that was the point.
Mother's chair is where you left it. I have moved it to the window because the light is better there in the afternoon. She would have said I was being sentimental. She was probably right.
I come to the censor's office every second day. Mensah has written twice to the Director at Tethys on his own initiative. He has had no answer. He told me it would be a kindness to tell me something. I told him I was not looking for kindness. I was looking for a letter.
If this comes back I will write again. I have paper.
— Idit