Page 3 of Positively, Penelope

Subject: Re: I’m here!!

I just got off the plane and wanted to send a quick response about the chocolate fiasco. It really was nothing. A mother of two small children was having a difficult time managing the baby during the flight and her three-year-old started crying due to the turbulence, so I offered to help. Needless to say, as the mother was handing the three-year-old over to me, I didn’t realize he had chocolate-covered fingers, and then we hit turbulence, he fell forward, and I can only assume he grabbed onto the most obvious and available parts of me. My squeal caused the flight attendant to come running in our direction, but by the time she arrived, I’d calmed the little guy down with a fun spinning toy I pulled from my Mary Poppins bag. (I did NOT pull out my stuffed otter. Chocolate does not wash off of him as easily as the spinning toy.)

Penelope

PS: Izzy, you didn’t tell me how lovely the airport is here in Skymar. Except the playground. For some reason there is a giant toy sea monster in there for children to ride. Why would they make something like that? Don’t they know they are contributing to children’s nightmares? I avoided eye contact with it.

PPS: I refuse to respond to theSweeney Toddreference no matter how much I enjoy the theatrics of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

From: Luke Edgewood

To: Penelope Edgewood, Izzy Edgewood, Josephine Martin

Date: August27

Subject: Re: I’m here!!

I bet one of the gangster brothers could protect you from the fake sea monster.

Luke

PS: Or you could pull a sword from your Mary Poppins bag.

Text from Luke to Izzy:If Penny-girl ever questions whether I love her, please remind her that I actually respond to her ridiculous emails.

Izzy:I’m so glad you do! It reassures me that your dear little sister really DID write what she wrote. I’m not going crazy.

Luke:Says the woman who is packing up her life in a few months and moving to a foreign country that has five months of winter.

Izzy:You’re just jealous.

Luke:Iz, you can have Brodie. He wears too many sweater vests for me.

Izzy:My boyfriend would not trade me, even if you can speak Klingon. I’m a much better snuggler than you. I was talking about you being jealous of the winters. You love winter.

From: Izzy Edgewood

To: Penelope Edgewood, Luke Edgewood, Josephine Martin

Date: August27

Subject: Re: I’m here!!

Penelope,

It’s a good thing the sea monster is safely fake so you don’t have to worry about him. Besides, it’s just some fun thing Skymar uses for marketing to the tourists. I can’t remember where that particular sea monster is featured most, but there’s a place somewhere on Ansling where he supposedly makes his appearance.

And I will forever be amazed at what you carry in that magical bag of yours. Why on earth would you have a spinning toy?

BTW, Penelope, are any of the new friends you’ve made through that online Skymarian Theater Troupe going to meet up with you while you’re there? Since you’ve been emailing them for a few months, maybe it will be an easy way to make new friends.

Izzy

Text from Luke to Izzy:Iz, Penelope can make friends with a tree. By the end of the day, she’ll probably have the gangsters joining her in a musical rendition of something with sparkles and fairies, and the sea monster asking to wear that crown she carries around in her bag all the time. I don’t try to make sense of it because there is no sense to be made.

From: Penelope Edgewood

To: Izzy Edgewood, Luke Edgewood, Josephine Martin

---