The girls wrote back about their favorite subjects and asked what vegetables she grew.

The exchange proceeded slowly.

Some days it felt absurd that thirteen years of distance could be bridged with descriptions of tomatoes and snowstorms.

Other days that ordinariness was its greatest virtue.

One afternoon Chloe asked whether we expected them to change their surnames.

I almost laughed at the thought of such an unreasonable demand.

Then I realized I had once expected Marianne to change her life around my ambitions.

“No,” I said firmly.