another letter, he certainly won’t come in the middle of the night.”
Yuck! Sophie loathed all that soppy talk about love. But she had to let her
mother go on believing it was true.
“Is he the one who told you about the rabbit and the top hat?” her mother asked.
Sophie nodded.
“He—he doesn’t do drugs, does he?”
Now Sophie felt really sorry for her mother. She couldn’t go on letting her
worry this way, although it was completely nutty of her to think that just because
someone had a slightly bizarre idea he must be on something. Grownups really were
idiotic sometimes.
She said, “Mom, I promise you once and for all I’ll never do any of that stuff...
and he doesn’t either. But he is very interested in philosophy.”
“Is he older than you?”
Sophie shook her head.
“The same age?”
Sophie nodded.
“Well, I’m sure he’s very sweet, darling. Now I think you should try and get
some sleep.”
But Sophie stayed sitting by the window for what seemed like hours. At last she
could hardly keep her eyes open. It was one o’clock.
She was just about to go to bed when she suddenly caught sight of a shadow
emerging from the woods.
Although it was almost dark outside, she could make out the shape of a human
figure. It was a man, and Sophie thought he looked quite old. He was certainly not her
age! He was wearing a beret of some kind.
She could have sworn he glanced up at the house, but Sophie’s light was not on.
The man went straight up to the mailbox and dropped a big envelope into it. As he let
go of it, he caught sight of Sophie’s letter. He reached down into the mailbox and
fished it up. The next minute he was walking swiftly back toward the woods. He hur-
ried down the woodland path and was gone.
Sophie felt her heart pounding. Her first instinct was to run after him in her
pajamas but she didn’t dare run after a stranger in the middle of the night. But she did
have to go out and fetch the envelope.
After a minute or two she crept down the stairs, opened the front door quietly,
and ran to the mailbox. In a flash she was back in her room with the envelope in her
hand. She sat on her bed, holding her breath. After a few minutes had passed and all
was still quiet in the house, she opened the letter and began to read.
She knew this would not be an answer to her own letter. That could not arrive
until tomorrow.
FATE
Good morning once again, my dear Sophie. In case you should get any
ideas, let me make it quite clear that you must never attempt to check up on
me. One day we will meet, but I shall be the one to decide when and where.
And that’s final. You are not going to disobey me, are you?
But to return to the philosophers. We have seen how they tried to find
natural explanations for the transformations in Nature. Previously these things
had been explained through myths.
Old superstitions had to be cleared away in other areas as well. We see
them at work in matters of sickness and health as well as in political events. In