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If on a Yuletide morn, a reader

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Of course nothing is attached. Of course the story ends there. You know better than to expect closure at this point.

You hear your computer chime; you have a new email. Perhaps it is from your recipient, writing to thank you for telling the story they have always wanted. Or your friend, with another link or a reply to your original tale. Or Nigerian spam. Perhaps it is feedback from another reader, someone random, letting you know that you have written the story they did not know they wanted until they read it.

You are tempted to check, but you put it off for just a bit longer. After all, you need to finish reading your Yuletide story.

Notes:

This story never would have happened without the help of many, many people, and I am grateful to each of them. Kass took time from her hospital bed to give me inside info on my recipient, which allowed me to tailor the story to her (since it was, after all, sort of about her) in ways I never would have been able to do otherwise. I give co-author credit for Chapter 6 to imperfectcircle/happydork, for her part in creating and coding the equations for the Arcadia story. And also deep gratitude to anatsuno, who helped me research Calvino's use of Oulipo structural elements, translated bits of French articles for me, and led me to essential secondary resources. Individual chapters were audienced/betaed by Kass, cesare, emeraldwoman, and thefourthvine, while raveninthewind, thefourthvine, and Travis did a full beta and cathexys lent encouragement. Last but not least, thanks to Cal of AO3 support, who helped me wrangle the formatting into shape. This would be a poorer story without all of them.