I first heard about this short story during my podcast interview with Ana Grilo and Thea James, better known as The Book Smugglers (Episode 299).  This was a story Ana in particular was very excited about as part of their Awakenings season of publication.

In When the Letter Comes, Henry, a trans girl, watches her younger sister receive the letter welcoming Gabriele to magical school, a letter that Henry had hoped and expected for herself. Henry struggles with her own gender identity, and with negotiating her feelings about her changing physical body and emotional landscape, but the struggle with her feelings at seeing Gabriele chosen instead of her is the most painful and difficult – for awhile.

The story jumps ahead after Gabriele disappears into the woods where the magic school waits only for her. Meanwhile, Henry learns to cope with her grief, and learns how to adorn herself in micro-adjustments that bring her centimeters closer to her preferred interaction with the world: the gift of a barely-used eyeliner pencil becomes a nonstop autodidactic determination to master that perfect line. She finds and embraces different adornments that make her feel more comfortable as herself. She moves through fighting with her parents who are more fearful and upset about her gender than they are about Gabriele going to magic school in the woods – because they can see the struggles Henry faces, but have no idea what Gabriele is doing.

Then a young person named Caden comes to Henry’s home and escorts her into the woods. There’s a lot that’s been going on for Gabriele and her fellow students, and Henry had no idea about their parallel struggles. (My favorite line: “There is no chosen one.”)

The gift of this story is in the subtlety and determination of the narrative. Henry is always “she/her,” and Caden is “they/their,” and the narration shares and enforces their gender boundaries (or lack thereof). There are fluid parallels between the magical world where Gabriele is fighting, and Henry’s world of being transgender in middle and high school, of being different and demanding that the world recognize and respect and make room for that difference. Gabriele, like Henry, faces adults who do not want to accept her and the other students’ demands and protests, and Henry and Gabriele’s respective ways of battling their opponents are thoughtful and revealing, leaving me with a lot to ruminate upon. When the Letter Comes is a quick read, resting on very familiar magic/nonmagic story foundations, but builds an unexpectedly charming and affectionate and kind narrative that leads away from overly familiar deployment of tropes and characters.

More than anything, I wanted more, which is superbly selfish but here I am. I wanted more of Henry because she’s so infallibly brave and determined yet patient with herself, with her parents, and with her sister. She has the ability to see the 30,000-foot view of things, for example, knowing her parents are trying, which allows her to handle the immediacy of her parents’ clumsy efforts to understand and protect her. She can see most of the big picture and that allows her to manage the more painful present moments with a generosity that’s beautiful and kind.

The story also moves from a 30,000-foot view to immediate moments and close-up scenes, and that was more jarring for me as a reader. It jumps ahead in time in the beginning, skipping over months and summarizing them in a handful of words before zooming in on Caden arriving and escorting Henry to a handful of scenes that move through time at a much slower pace.  Both Henry and Gabriele grow up in a hurry with the things they face and manage in their respective worlds, and I wish there had been more about them, about their struggles. I could read another 75,000 words in this world, in Henry’s perspective, no problem.

You can read the short story online at The Book Smugglers’ website, purchase it DRM-free from their site, or purchase it in different e-formats at your preferred retailer. I’d recommend keeping the purchase options bookmarked, because there will be many, many people who will be as charmed and as soothed by this loving, adorable story as I was.

Some stories communicate in each letter a sense of welcome affection and loving warmth. This is one of those stories. It is a thoughtful balm that communicates a deeply kind and comforting understanding to the reader, and that message of acceptance and love that was a wonderful experience. “There is magic” is a theme that never gets old for me as a reader, and the presence of trans and gender fluid characters and the construction of an innovative and thoughtfully warmhearted narrative on top of a very familiar base made this story so moving and memorable. It’s more than, “There is magic.” This story includes the reader in the wonder and awe at being told, “and you are magical, too.”

NB: my vocabulary and lexicon when discussing transgender characters is not as strong or fluent as I would like, and I am trying to learn every day. If a term or word has hurt you, please tell me, and please know that I am terribly sorry.