Coralee and the Spellbinding Sage

**Chapter One: The Letter**

Coralee put her keys and her phone on the kitchen table, took off her coat and went to the fridge to take out a beer. She sat down in the living room and turned her TV on, checked her Facebook, then opened her letter. It had been forwarded from a different address, she hadn’t lived there for years now.

She was trying to remember where it was, something in Brooklyn? She wasn’t sure herself anymore, it had been a long time since she had moved out of that place.

She unfolded the letter carefully, as if it could break, and began to read:

"Dearest Coralee! How are you? I hope everything is well! I’m doing great! I have finally found the right guy! We are engaged now! I know you always wanted me to settle down and be married with kids but I wanted to wait until I was sure he was the right one. And he is so perfect! He makes me so happy!"

Her eyes drifted over the lines once again, just to make sure she had read it correctly.

"I am hoping that if everything works out between us we will get married next year or maybe even sooner if possible. Oh my god, Coralee, he brings me flowers every day! Every day!! He loves me so much! He is such a gentleman and treats me like a princess! Oh gosh, he is so sweet!"

She looked at the bottom of the letter and saw a signature "Elaine" written with loopy letters in green ink. Coralee smiled while reading the rest of it. Her sister had never stopped being silly. She finished reading through all the details of Elaine's new life and ended up smiling more than once during the following passages:

"He told me that he wants to have many children with me and we will live in a beautiful house somewhere far away from here...he said we would travel around the world together and live everywhere for a while...I was thinking about how this would be really nice because you know how I always love travelling...I also really want to see some other places than New York but he didn't give me any details yet...he doesn't want to tell me anything else before we are married..."

The last sentence brought back memories of their childhood together. Wherever Elaine was planning on moving after the wedding, it would most likely be somewhere outside of New York state. She had never liked living there. In fact she had always hated it; not only because of school but also because of home. Their parents weren't very affectionate people; they weren't abusive or neglectful but they were simply too focused on their own lives to pay enough attention to their kids or spend time with them when they were little. They weren't horrible parents by any means either; they were just not interested in their kids enough for them to play an active role in their upbringing or care much about what their children did on their own time. They were around when needed but otherwise kept themselves busy with work or other stuff like sports or hanging out with friends. Not that Coralee blamed them for that; she knew that they loved them both dearly despite their lack of interest but she also knew that Elaine hated being raised by people who enjoyed spending time in bars and night clubs instead of being at home with them. That had probably been one of the reasons why she had left for Seattle two weeks after she graduated high school instead of going to college right away like Coralee had done afterwards; she simply wanted to get away from there as soon as possible and start living her own life again under different circumstances.

Coralee put down her letter, sighed deeply and rubbed her forehead with both hands while contemplating the current state of her relationship with Elaine. They hadn't talked much since Elaine moved away, except for a few Facebook messages every couple of months. Coralee held onto hope that their relationship might improve once Elaine got married and settled down in the near future.

**Chapter Two: The Letters (2)**

A couple of hours later, Coralee was jolted out of her thoughts by insistent ringing from her doorbell followed by loud knocking. Groggy from her previous night's activities, she struggled to sit up, rubbing her head to ease the painful headache she felt. She had spent the evening drinking beer and watching movies alone, eventually passing out on her couch due to exhaustion.

Slowly, she rose to her feet and stumbled towards the front door. Opening the door, she found her neighbor outside with a concerned expression, likely due to the noise they had heard coming from her apartment. Apologizing for any disturbance she may have caused, Coralee accepted a package from her neighbor before closing the door and returned to her living room, wondering what might be inside.