Free Where the Sun Sets by Ann Marie

once
again.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    The mail had arrived, back at St. Agnes.
Josephine ran to see if anything had arrived for her. Sister
Patricia handed her a brown wrapped package addressed to her.
“Josephine, there is something for Antonia. Will you take it up to
her?” Sister asked holding up a single envelope. Josephine took
what she was handed, but her eyes never left her own package. As
she walked back to her room, she ripped open the wrapper. Inside
was a magazine. A piece of paper marked a page for her inspection.
She placed the wrapper and Antonia’s letter under her arm as she
opened the page. A photo of her. Ms. Josephine Ferrero. An up and
coming star. One to watch for in the future. There was a whole
article attached. An article on her, along with several more photos
and a brief biography. She raced to her room.
    “Anthony, Anthony, guess what...” Josephine
barged into their room and threw herself on Antonia’s bed. Her
friend was lying back, reading a book.
    “You finally got hair under your arms?”
Antonia responded, not looking up.
    “Anthony, my picture is in a magazine. Here
look, they did a whole story on me.” Anthony glanced up at her
friend. Then, placing her book aside she sat up to look at the
magazine. Josephine read the article out loud. The article
explained where Josephine was born, where she lived at that moment
and how she got her big break. It explained her role in Louis
Irving’s newest release and how she was currently being considered
for a part in his next film.
    “Can you believe it? Oh my God, Anthony, a
whole story on me!” Josephine bounced up and down on Anthony’s bed.
Both the wrapper and letter for Antonia fell to the floor.
    Anthony stepped off the bed to pick them up
and said “Why did they have to mention where you live?”
    Josephine stood up and stared in disbelief at
her friend. “Why can’t you ever be happy for me? Who cares what
they wrote anyway. Look at the pictures, Anthony, my face is in a
magazine.”
    Anthony was looking down at the letter she
held in her hand. Bringing her right leg up under her, she sat on
her bed again. Josephine stopped talking and watched her friend’s
reaction.
    Anthony looked scared. “It’s just a letter,
it can’t hurt you.” Josephine came back and sat next to her friend.
She noticed the big red prison stamp on the front of the envelope.
She hadn’t noticed it before. Anthony was looking blankly at the
letter. All the confidence and security she had managed to obtain
in the past few years had left her spirit. She knew she should have
just thrown the letter away. Her inner self told her not to open it
but she needed to know what he had written. Still she stared at the
letter.
    “You don’t have to open it, you know.”
Josephine tried to help. Antonia did not respond. She needed family
contact. ‘Perhaps he was writing to apologize’, she thought.
Antonia carefully, slowly, opened the letter.
    There was only a simple white piece of paper
with the words, ‘Looking good, love daddy’, along with a newspaper
clipping. Anthony just looked at it.
    Josephine said, “Hey, is that you? When did
you get your picture in the paper? Why didn’t you tell me? July?
You made the paper in July?” Anthony was not listening as Josephine
read the article out loud. Antonia Dal Santo, this year’s spelling
bee winner for the tri-state area. Winning her claim to fame with
the word, “paleontologist.” Ms. Dal Santo beat out twenty five
other contestants from around the area, taking a prize of one
thousand dollars back to St. Agnes.
    Josephine looked up at Antonia with both
jealousy and rage, but her anger slowed as she saw the color her
friends face had become. Antonia jumped up from her bed and dashed
down the hall to the rest room. Barely making it through the door,
she vomited painfully for several minutes before passing out on the
floor. Josephine followed, with both the letter and