Dear Clay,

Even though we will break up on the day you will receive this letter under bad terms, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t mean anything to me. I will be too sad and guilty to say this to you for decades, but I want you to know that these past few years were something special. Even though I wasn’t right for you, I always believed there would be someone who could appreciate all of your wonderfulness and wanted the same things out of life as you.

I heard you took a vow of silence and became a monk for the League of Silent Humans after our breakup. I hope this letter reaches you before you do so. The world needs more voices like yours and more hearts like yours out there loving. Please don’t give up on love.

Best wishes,

Jessie

*****

PO Box 159 at the Brooksdale Post Office is a bit unusual. Every week, it receives letters from many different people from many different times in the future. Many times, the letters are well-wishes and advice from the loved ones of people of our time. Other times, there are dire warnings.

No one seems to know how or why these letters started coming to PO Box 159. They simply appear. The future these letters describe seems to be in constant flux; one day the year 2098 sounds like a dystopian hellscape, the next day a letter will appear describing a garden of Eden.

Emma Reilly, the owner of PO Box 159, shares the letters she receives through this blog (mostly) every Tuesday.