Newsletter
by Connie Willis
  

Asimov's, December 1997

collected in —

The odd thing this year is that little things begin to go right: little things, but too many of them, going way better than normal or habitual: with Nan's relatives, among her co-workers, even afar as described in the Christmas newsletters she begins to receive. At first she is startled and bemused, then speculative, then seriously worrying as the pattern seems much larger than she'd first thought.

The plot is not complicated, but as always, Connie Willis' characters are deftly sketched. with humor and empathy. The story has Willis' easy reality, with Nan's mother's kitchen and her own office and the Christmas shoppers as the natural backdrop to something — different. What's wrong? is the first puzzle. And then: How? And more subtly, why do so many right changes that Nan notices seem to add to a wrongness?
  

If I say that "Newsletter", doesn't rise to the level of those completely sparkling Christmas packages, "Miracle" and "Inn", it's just that those others are so good. Yet "Newsletter" is a neatly wrapped and tucked story, quite wittily presented, and fun to watch unfold.

You may find yourself giving a little more thoughtful attention to the next round of Christmas newsletters you receive.

  
© 2011 Robert Wilfred Franson