Letter

As he flicked through the letters, a small, handwritten envelope caught his attention and his heart began to thump. The familiar handwriting with somewhat childish circles and twists made him smile. The was a sudden urge to tear it open immediately and read it there in the hallway. However, John rarely acted spontaneous, everything in his life had its order and procedure. Letters were always opened in the afternoon after 3 sips of afternoon tea. Moreover, letters were never torn open. He had a special paper knife for letters and it took him good 5 minutes to open the letter. First he would inspect the envelope and use magnifying glass to admire the stamps, then he would make sure that the procedure of opening the envelope will not damage the letter inside and only then he would carefully cut the envelope open. Then he would write down the date and name of the sender in his pocket book. He would carefully take out the letter and evaluate the amount of written text and any supplements if they are present. He would take another sip of tea and start reading the letter. He would read the letter 3 times: first, he would just read it and enjoy, then he would read it the second time and jot down the topics discussed in the letter and some meaningful facts in his pocket book. The third time he would read and put down the questions the sender had asked in the letter. Then he would spend the rest afternoon thinking about it, but he would never write the answer the same day. It would take him couple of days to plan and write the letter.