Return to Sender

The manuscript arrived on a Tuesday, in a plain brown envelope, with a cover letter that began Dear Editor. Nneka read the name on the title page twice, then a third time, then put the whole thing face down on her desk as if it might be watching her.

“Problem?” asked Femi from the next desk.

“No,” Nneka said. “Yes. It’s from someone I used to know.” She did not say: someone I used to know so well I could tell what he’d had for breakfast by the way he said good morning.