Dear Geist,

Do you have any examples of written passages dealing with remote but real time? Nothing too esoteric, but not quite, you know, earthly? Two of us are grappling with this little move but we haven’t found the right tone.

—Three writers from Etobicoke

Dear Three,

We think you will be inspired by this short passage from The Time Being, by the wonderful writer Mary Meigs (1917-2002):

“In the imaginary love-time, four months before Kate and Marj met, Marj made a trip to Amsterdam for the Feminist Book Fair. There were five letters from Kate waiting for her at her hotel. She felt Kate’s love warming her, pouring through her and spreading happiness out to the world, precipitating her into friendly embraces with other women, without any sense of disloyalty, for she was sure that her joy would make Kate joyful. The years dropped from her, she spilled out her story to anyone who would listen, she was happy in the company of her friends and with the Australian women, editors and writers, whom she would later meet again in Australia. She felt that the lesbian nation was in full flower, soaring on sisterly love. . .”

This is a lot of material to keep afloat in any setting, let alone one in which the main character is already blooming in a life that is not yet hers. The writer achieves it with wild surges of joy, familiar to anyone who has been in love, and by building the burgeoning romance of two lovers who have never actually met. And she does it with simple, familiar flourishes—all showing and no explaining—and with an open heart. Wow!

—The Editors