13 Little Blue Envelopes

The next morning, Ginny asks Richard for advice on finding an artist to give money to. Richard suggests that they look in a local magazine for information about art shows or events. They find a few that are in Richard’s neighborhood, so he offers to accompany Ginny to check them out.

The first place they stop is a cafe with paintings displayed. Ginny is unimpressed by the paintings, which all depict someone named Sheila. Next, they see the work of an installation artist whom Ginny dubs “The Half Guy” because he cuts items in half and then displays them (55). After this uninspiring start, Ginny decides that she’d like to find some street performers. Richard advises her to go to Covent Garden in downtown London.

The plaza at Covent Garden is full of street performers. She contemplates dropping the £500 into one of their collection plates and being done with the task, but that would not be in the spirit of what Peg wanted her to do.

Wandering away from the crowds, Ginny sees a poster for Goldsmiths College, an art school nearby. She walks to the campus, immediately regretting her decision when she realizes that it is after 5:00 pm on a summer evening; it is unlikely that there will be many students on campus. She spots another flier, this one for a play called Starbucks: The Musical. She asks for directions to the ticket office.

There are only 10 people in the small, dark theater waiting for Starbucks: The Musical to begin. Ginny feels distinctly out of place since everyone else in the audience seems to be there with friends.

The show begins with a man standing in the center of the stage. Ginny guesses that he’s her age or a little older. He is wearing a kilt, a Starbucks t-shirt, and a top hat. He is playing a character named Jittery Grande. The show is a playful, nonsensical production. Ginny is “totally engrossed” and quickly develops a crush on the actor (60).

After the show, Ginny realizes that the actor is also the director and writer of the show. His name is Keith Dobson. Ginny decides to become Keith’s “mysterious benefactor,” per her aunt’s instructions.

The next morning, Ginny returns to the ticket office in the student union building. She buys all the remaining tickets for the next three shows. This leaves her with £142 of her aunt’s original £500; she’ll need to find some other way to give the rest of this money to Keith.

Shortly after leaving the ticket office, Ginny realizes her error; in buying all the tickets for Keith’s show, she made it so that no one else could see it. In a panic, she returns to Harrods to ask Richard for advice.

Richard advises Ginny to go to the West End, which he compares to Broadway. He figures that she might be able to give tickets away to people who are waiting in line for other shows. Ginny goes to the West End, but she is too shy to approach people on the street. After a few hours, she has only given away six tickets.

Ginny goes back to the Goldsmiths campus, figuring that she might have better luck there. She offers a ticket to a student. He declines the ticket, saying he has plans for the night. He seems puzzled and interested. Later, Ginny will discover that this student is Keith’s roommate, David.

Sitting at the bus stop, Ginny drafts a letter to her best friend from home, Miriam. In her letter, she displays a sharp sense of humor as she tells Miriam about her crush on Keith and jokes about her self-proclaimed pathetic history with guys.

That night at the show, there are only three people in the audience including Ginny. After the show ends, Keith approaches her and asks why she bought all the tickets only to try to give them away. Ginny, nervous and surprised, is unable to say more than a word or two. Keith asks her out for a drink.

Keith takes Ginny to a dive bar called The Friend in Need. Ginny worries about the fact that she’s underage. Keith reassures her and approaches the bar to order her a beer. Ginny asks him for a Guinness after seeing a sign for Guinness on the wall.

Ginny does not like her beer. Still speaking very few words, she surprises Keith by telling him that she hasn’t been to see the London Eye, the Tower, the parliament building, or any other famous tourist attractions. In response to his questions about buying all the tickets to Starbucks: The Musical, Ginny tells Keith that she had received “a little inheritance” (76). Keith concludes that Ginny is wealthy.

Keith tells Ginny about himself, partly to fill the silence left by Ginny’s shyness. He describes his teenage years as having been full of pranks; he drank a lot, caused trouble at school, and shoplifted. After being arrested, he decided to “turn his life around” and started making films (77).

Keith informs Ginny that he’s going to perform Starbucks: The Musical at the famous Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. He invites her to help him pack up the props after the final performance the following night. He reassures her that they can take the extra tickets to the international office to give to international students who are in town for the summer.

Ginny helps Keith load all the props into his small car. Once they’re done, Keith drives them to the house where he lives with his roommate, David. Ginny recognizes David as the curious student who she’d tried to give a ticket to; it was David who told Keith that Ginny had purchased all the tickets to the show and was giving them away. Ginny also meets David’s girlfriend, Fiona. She is intimidated by Fiona’s cool-girl vibes.

Keith teasingly asks Ginny why she had been drawn to his show. Ginny, unaccustomed to flirtatious attention, reacts by pulling the remaining £142 from her pocket and offering it to him. Keith is confused, not understanding why she’d be giving him money. Ginny is embarrassed and tongue-tied. She tells Keith that she wants to go home and wants to walk by herself. Instead, he drives her.

The drive back to Richard’s place is awkward, and after Keith drives away, Ginny beats herself up for offering him the money without explanation. Ginny is disappointed to see that the house is dark; she thinks that if Richard had been awake, she might have liked to talk to him about Keith.

Back in Aunt Peg’s room, Ginny opens the next envelope, which is decorated with a drawing of a girl looking up at a castle on a hill.

In her fourth letter, Aunt Peg describes leaving London to meet her hero, a painter named Mari Adams who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Peg characterizes Edinburgh as “ancient and strange” (91), with a big castle on a hill right in the middle of the city.

Aunt Peg gives Ginny the task of visiting Mari in Edinburgh. She writes of Mari that “she’ll know what you need even if you don’t” (92).

After reading Aunt Peg’s fourth letter—a letter sending her to the same city where Keith plans to travel—Ginny wonders if Peg had somehow “known the unknowable” to give her a second chance with Keith (93).

Ginny spends all day trying to work up the nerve to ask Keith to travel with her to Scotland. She imagines that someone more confident, like her best friend, Miriam, would ask Keith right away. Growing restless, Ginny cleans Richard’s house. Then, she goes for a walk. Without planning to, she walks to Keith’s house.

On the stoop outside Keith’s house, Ginny finds Keith’s roommate, David. He’s having a tense phone conversation but hangs up just as Ginny is approaching. David confides in Ginny that he’s just told his girlfriend that he doesn’t want to move to Spain with her. Then, he starts to cry.

Keith comes outside to find Ginny comforting David on the sidewalk. Keith drives them to an Indian restaurant. Ginny realizes that this is Keith’s version of a “tragedy meal” (97), like the ice cream and candy she’d bought for Miriam after a breakup.

David has a few beers and drunkenly runs away when they are leaving the restaurant. Ginny runs after him while Keith gets the car. They chase David for some time before retrieving him and safely returning him home.

Keith drives Ginny home, and she invites him to Scotland before getting out of the car. He agrees to meet her at Kings Cross Station in the morning so that they can catch the train together. Keith gives Ginny a quick peck on the lips and drives away.

After Keith pulls away, Ginny sees a little red fox digging through a trash can.

Keith sleeps throughout the train ride to Scotland. When they emerge from the train station in downtown Edinburgh, Ginny notices how the city is different from London, with a skyline “on a hundred different levels,” and the castle right in the center (105).

Keith accompanies Ginny across town to Mari’s home. As they are waiting for an answer to their knock, Ginny notices that the doorframe is decorated with paintings of foxes, birds, and flowers. An eccentrically dressed young woman opens the door and tersely lets them inside. The interior of the old home is painted in a myriad of bright colors and furnished creatively. In one room, a large table is covered with small toys. There are paintings of women hanging everywhere, and the paintings are done in a fantastical style.

Mari is in her sixties. She has stars tattooed on her face like freckles and has thick black hair. Ginny is struck by her unconventional clothing that she “somehow carr[ies] off” (109).

Mari hugs Ginny. Keith jokingly introduces himself as Ginny’s hairdresser, which amuses Mari. Mari has writing tattooed on her hands and feet. She tells them that the names of her pet dogs who have died are tattooed on her hands; her pet foxes’ names are tattooed on her feet.

Keith fights to keep from laughing at some of Mari’s more unusual stories. She tells them about shutting herself inside a cage with her pet foxes to paint. She also describes living on the streets of Paris.

Keith’s mood shifts when Mari expresses her grief about Aunt Peg’s death. This is the first time that Keith hears about Peg’s letters and her death.

Mari shows them a painting by Jan van Eyck. She admires the way the painting depicts an ordinary scene—a couple in a home setting, with a dog on the floor—with such great care. She points out that there is a mirror in the painting. In the reflection of the mirror, the artist is visible. She tells them that this is an example of what inspires people to make art: “We want to remember, and we want to be remembered” (112).

Mari abruptly asks Ginny to take off her shirt and begins drawing on her shoulder. She spends so long drawing on Ginny’s shoulder that Keith falls asleep in the corner of the room. Mari’s drawing is of a golden lion with a wild mane.

Keith and Ginny catch the train back to London. On the ride, Ginny tells Keith the whole story about Aunt Peg and the letters. Keith surprises Ginny by responding negatively; his interpretation of the story is that Ginny and Peg were very close, and then Peg abandoned Ginny without a word. Ginny angrily defends Peg, arguing that everything interesting in her life is because of Peg.

Keith tells Ginny about his ex-girlfriend, Claire. Claire became pregnant while they were in high school and decided to have an abortion. Keith supported her decision, but things were not the same between them afterward. The experience broke his heart and caused him to act out. It was during that time that he was arrested for stealing.

After they’ve both shared these personal stories, Keith puts his arm around Ginny’s shoulders. Ginny doesn’t think that the gesture feels very romantic, but she also thinks it feels more intimate than it would with a friend.

At the train station in London, Keith offers Ginny a windup toy that he took from the table in Mari’s house. Ginny is shocked and angry that he stole from Mari. Keith is surprised by her strong reaction. He tosses the toy onto the train track, which angers Ginny further. They both leave in a huff.