You know, when you were writing this last year I thought that you were making it up impulsively because you would often include or emphasize things because nonnies wanted them—but rereading the whole thing now, and especially in light of this chapter, it’s obvious how thematically well structured the story is. I really love the way Katie (who initially just seems to serve as an illustration of James’s issues and how they affect him in various situations) comes back as one of the most important characters, the one who is there for James when the love interests, who we expect to make it all better, weren’t able to be the friends he needed. I like how James’s very sweet and caring personality, which has been kind of in the background because there’s so much awful stuff in the foreground to pay attention to, means that his life is full of people who are loyal to him; that he’s come through for himself, accidentally, when he might not have had much conscious drive for self-preservation.

I also like the continued references to James being potentially scary to other people, from the girl crossing the street to avoid him to his fear that his hug might be threatening to Katie, after his nightmare about raping her in the last chapter. To me it lines up, somehow, with the fact that Katie’s one of the people he had secretly-noncon sex with, but also one of the people who helps him most...it’s very messy, and most of the suffering in the story isn’t caused by villainy, just trauma and misunderstandings and mistakes. Almost all the characters are sweet and well meaning, which is hopeful and horrible. Well, I’m not sure if I can fully articulate where I think you’re going with that, which I really wanted to be able to do; but I’ve sat on this long enough. Thank you so much, you’re both literally and figuratively the best.