Fiction

“Are you finished with your letter?” Harvey asked.

“Almost. I just hope that I’ve included everything.” Rita said.

Harvey looked up from his laptop and he stared across the table. He stared at the stacks of colored writing paper that lay beneath Rita’s slender hands.

Rita held a shining gold pen in her grasp and the writing instrument was adorned with a small hypnotic blue light at the top of the metal instrument.

The blue light was in the shape of a small sphere and each time Rita pressed the pointed tip of the ink pen to the colored paper, the light would flash on for a brief moment before it turned dark.

“How much is it to mail stuff now?” Harvey asked.

Harvey turned from Rita and he looked around the crowded coffee shop. He grabbed a small cup of latte that rested near his buzzing computer and he brought the cup to his lips.

“I think its almost fifty cents. Or more.” Rita said.

Harvey glanced at the dozens of seated people near him who tapped happily across the keyboards of the small laptop computers that rested atop the tables in front of them.

He placed his cup onto the table and he looked at Rita with a smile.

“Soon it might cost two dollars to mail a letter.” He said.

Rita stopped writing and she stared at Harvey with wide eyes.

“I hope not.” She said.

Rita smiled at Harvey before she turned her attention to the paper in front of her.

“No one writes letters anymore.” Harvey said.

Harvey turned his attention to the laptop computer in front of him. He raised his hands and he flexed his fingers as he stared at the flickering screen. And after a few moments, Harvey lowered his hands to the keyboard and began to type.