"I received these in the mail recently and I was wondering if you could explain something to me." I hand him the one from Spain that read "Fun in the Sun."

Gerald looks the mail over with a careful eye, intrigued by the mystery I've laid out before him. "You say you received these recently?"

"Right," I say, and spread the cards out like a Tarot deck. Tulips from Amsterdam. Bier Gartens from Germany. The Eiffel Tower. Big Ben. The Roman Coliseum.

—Kirk Farber, Postcards from a Dead Girl (2010)