By Any Other Name
Sans MAS
By Any Other Name
Sans MAS
For dreamers.
Copyright 2011 by Sans MAS
All rights reserved.
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of this work should be e-mailed to: [email protected].
This book is available in print at many online retailers.
What's in a name?
That which we call a rose
By any other name
Would smell as sweet.
-William Shakespeare
Prologue
My tenth grade English Teacher said to always let the work speak for itself.
In accordance with this, all I have to say is...
-Sans MAS
NOVELLANA
Novellana Douglass fiddled with a physics problem as she waited restlessly for the mail to come. A lock of her long chocolate brown hair fell across the page and she sighed, pushing it back and resigning herself to the fact that she was too distracted to think about physics right now. As she gazed listlessly down her empty suburban street, she allowed her mind to wander back to the subject of her distraction, a series of letters she'd been sending to a mysterious boy named James.
It had all started the week after she finished her bachelor's degree at the highly selective, but practically unheard of Jochawk Institute. Novellana had spent the first week of summer visiting amusement parks with her best friend, Melonie. Melonie had an appetite for thrills that was unparalleled, except perhaps for Novellana's step-brother, Jason. Novellana was glad they had each other, because after a week of constant running around, riding coasters and water slides, and filling up on hotdogs and soda, she couldn't keep up anymore. She returned home to spend the rest of the summer relaxing, while Melonie and Jason satiated their thirst for fun. The very first thing Novellana did was to check the mail, to see if she'd gotten a response from the graduate programs she'd applied to. She was delighted to have been invited back to Jochawk to continue graduate studies, but there was still the matter of figuring out which program she would be accepted into. Amongst the various articles she found in the mailbox was nothing from her school, but a post-card from England caught her eye. The picture was of Westminster Abbey, a place Novellana had always dreamed of visiting. She wondered who someone in her family knew that was visiting England. She flipped the card over and read,
"Paul,
As you can see I've stopped by the famous sites you told me to visit. That took all of the first day. For the last two days, I've been experiencing the culture here, especially the pubs. Don't be too disappointed in me, I've been keeping up with my reading, though I'm not enjoying Jane Austen nearly as much as you said I would. Hope the old man isn't being too difficult, and I'll see you in a few days.
~James"
Novellana smiled at the sentiments, then her eyes flew to the address as she realized the post-card had been misdelivered and wasn't even in the right city. She took it inside, and put it in an envelope, writing the address on the envelope and her return address at the top. She stamped it, then decided to include a note.
"Dear James and Paul,
Your post-card was misdelivered to my house. I've included it here, but I just wanted to apologize for eaves-reading. The picture is very beautiful. I hope you enjoyed such a fantastic trip. Which of Austen's books are you reading? My favorite is Pride and Prejudice. Sorry again.
