The Registry

Lisbon · FunnyOur fifth anniversary: the suitcase went to Madrid and we went to a tram.I am still angry about it. I am also still telling the story at parties.Tell it the way you tell it, and I will correct the tram.Ruth Calloway Fill the blank Rapid City · QuietYou asked the only good question about hadrosaurs, and I wrote it on my hand.Nine years of letters began with that smudge of ink.Do you remember which question it was? I do not, and I have never admitted it.Naomi Feld Fill the blank Half Way Tree Road · TenderYou came down the stairs in the dark and took the corner stool as if it had always been yours.Soft eggs, pepper, toast burnt on one side. I did not ask. I just knew.Tell me what you wanted that morning that you did not order.Ellis Baptiste Fill the blank Chuckanut Drive · FunnyThey put a plaque on the bench. The plaque has a typo, and you have never let me fix it.Eight years of you reading it aloud to anyone who stops.Go on, then. Read it again, typo included.Kay Ostrowski Fill the blank The Stavanger ferry · QuietI lent you my thermos on the ferry, and you handed it back full. I should have known then.Seven years on, I still bring the ships in so that I can come home.The tide is out. Sit with me and say what a harbour is for.Ingvild Haraldsen Fill the blank Monterey shore · FunnyThe octopus has your name and none of your manners.It took four years and one escaped dinner to get it to wave.Come out to the rocks. Bring a bucket and your honest opinion.Opal Brennan-Hayes Fill the blank Derwent Valley · FunnyThe wallaby was fine. You were the one who needed looking at.I asked you to dinner over a splinted leg, and I still smell of goat.Admit it was a good line. Say it was a good line.Bronwyn Teller Fill the blank Mount Pleasant · TenderVersion seven of the porch has a bench that fits exactly two.I drew it on the back of your gallery ticket, five years ago, and kept the ticket.Pick your side of the bench. I will draw around you.Soraya Kamali Fill the blank Tradd Street · ProudI have ruled on towels, ham and bedtimes, and you appealed all three.Ten years of kitchen law, and you have never once minded losing.Make your case. The court will be generous with the verdict.Henrietta Boyle Fill the blank The yellow bungalow · FunnyForty tulips, from a person who came in for one sunflower.Three years later the door still sticks, and so do the tulips.How many are there this week? Count honestly.Mabel Yoo Fill the blank Södra Strandgatan · QuietI left a tool in the hall drawer for you, the way I always do.Nine years and I have never said the word. I put the tool where you would find it.Check the drawer. Then tell me what it means.Dagny Eklund Fill the blank Hampden rowhouse · TenderHome at seven, hungry and happy, in that order. The order matters.You put the kettle on before I reached the stoop, as you did four years ago.Is there jollof? Be careful how you answer.Imani Okeke Fill the blank Rue Saint-Louis · ProudDinner is reviewed: three paragraphs, four stars, one sentence about the salt.You corrected my order at the brasserie six years ago, and I have been harder on you since.Shall I read you the sentence about the salt?Lorraine Duchesne Fill the blank Hadar HaCarmel · QuietYou left the window open again, and the light got in anyway.Two years since the wrong staircase, and I still follow you up the right ones.Leave it open tonight. I will tell you why.Tamar Ben-David Fill the blank Maple Street · TenderI recorded your snoring in our fourth winter and gave it a title.It is a lullaby now, and I play it when you are away.The blank book is still on the shelf. You will hear it on the tenth.Gwendolyn Frost Fill the blank Broad Street · TenderDinner is warm, you are late, and I have moved every clock three minutes ahead for you.Seven years, and the clocks still lose to you.Come in. Tell me what held you up, and I will forgive every minute.Palmira Santos Fill the blank