Inbox

Eva INBOX First published by BluINK 2023 Copyright © 2023 by Eva All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book. First edition This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy Find out more at reedsy.com Contents Author’s Note Dedication I. PART ONE 1. Chapter 1 2. Chapter 2 3. Chapter 3 4. Chapter 4 5. Chapter 5 6. Chapter 6 7. Chapter 7 8. Chapter 8 9. Chapter 9 10. Chapter 10 11. Chapter 11 II. PART TWO 12. Chapter 12 13. Chapter 13 14. Chapter 14 15. Chapter 15 16. Chapter 16 17. Chapter 17 18. Chapter 18 III. PART THREE 19. Chapter 19 20. Chapter 20 21. Chapter 21 22. Chapter 22 23. Chapter 23 24. Chapter 24 25. Chapter 25 26. Chapter 26 27. Chapter 27 28. Chapter 28 Author’s Note Pandemic fiction shows us the horrors of entire populations wiped out. Some are stories of people turned into walking dead. Characters race against time and circumstances to survive and start rebuilding from chaos and destruction. In the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the casualties was human interaction. Isolation stories from around the globe during the pandemic point to a new poverty in isolation life: the difficulty in finding love or the challenges in maintaining relationships. I started wondering if two people can reach intimacy without physical touch. Romantic love as we know it relies on doses of dopamine in human brains. Dopamine is the brain chemical that gives us feelings of giddiness and euphoria that accompanies a love interest. During isolation life, dating was limited to words and pictures. Is hearing someone’s voice and experiencing a lover’s gaze enough to fall in love with someone? For women, smell is an integral part of choosing a partner. What if two women were attracted to each other? Without physical touch and essential information from the sense of smell, could two women deepen intimacy based on conversation alone? Then there’s the collective grief that people feel. We’ve lost the past and the ways we used to be. We are all trying to make sense of this loss and looking for ways forward. When two people who’ve been traumatized by loss find a way to connect, will their virtual connection be enough to help them find their way back into trust? Based on true stories, INBOX is a way to see a ‘new normal’ through two characters who seek intimacy and are looking for ways to make it happen in a time of great constraints. Stay safe, Eva Dedication For Shuttle, who came in from the rain I Part One 1 Chapter 1 5 March 2020 Sanur Dear Océan, A tourist who had been on the island for a few months reportedly drowned in his villa pool today because he held his breath too long. Can you believe it? Why would someone hold their breath too long? It made me think of that meme, you’ve seen it before, of a little plant pushing out of concrete, with block letters across the image saying LIFE IS PERSISTENT or some such pronouncement. I find it difficult to believe that a man wouldn’t have kicked up to the surface after his lungs started burning from no air. It would seem that the body’s wisdom would take over even when the mind is far behind. Thank you for replying to my email. It was out of the blue, and I’m glad you said receiving it ‘delighted’ you. I hadn’t realized that the last time we were in touch was about two years ago. I guess I just sort of disappeared for a while. I am equally delighted to hear back from you. Yes, I did think about whether I should write to a family member or my best friend. I debated whether I should tell you why I hadn’t chosen to write to family or an old friend. When I sat down in front of the laptop intending to write to a friend, your name was the one that jumped to mind. I do communicate regularly with family members and friends, mostly short newsy emails or texts or social media messages. The most recent ones have been about things like how people catch the Covid-19 virus and whether banks are going under, and which banks are safer with the recession descending on the world from the collapse of entire industries due to the pandemic. That kind of thing. These sorts of global issues are easy to talk about because there’s always enough facts and media coverage, and one can express some opinion without the opinion being a source of unmet personal expectations. I have to confess it was somewhat random that I wrote your name as the person I’m writing this for. You came to mind the moment I sat down wanting to write to someone today. What I remembered was that conversation we had in 2012. You probably don’t remember it. You and dear Henry were sitting across from me (during the luncheon at that conference, do you remember?). You said to me, “You seem so comfortable in your own skin.” You