To the desk of Mr. Phinious McRearden.

Mr. McRearden, I am writing you on behalf of my departed husband, Joshua Zellerbrax. I believe that the university you act as Head of Entomology for is in possession of my husband's notes and field work, and I would request that these be returned to my family with the greatest haste. I have already written several people in the administration and have gotten either no response at all, or no more than sweet nothings. I apologize if my tone is rude, but I am rather at the ends of my wits as to recuperating my beloved's things, and wish that you, as a man of science who had had contact with my late husband, would understand my wish to have his affairs put in order, and his journals copied and secured for the family.

My husband worked tirelessly throughout Clark County and the state to collect the rarest and strangest specimens, and while I understand that many were not fans of his work -- some going so far as to call him a fraud -- I do rather insist that he was a completely honest man, and only recorded what God put before his eyes. Although even I strain at times to believe stories such as the nocturnal fairy wing, I know that my husband only worked out of love for nature and God's creations.

Please, have the decency and kindness to locate my husband's fieldwork and have it sent to

108 Spruce St. Qualm's Hollow

You would do my family and my husband's memory the greatest of favors.

God Bless,

Margaret Bennet-Zellerbrax

(Post on merbookclub.org forums, January 31, 1998, by user forgetthevoid. Posted as part of a series of fictional letters.)