Postmarked New Orleans, May 22, 1879

Dear Ella,

Coming in yesterday to my desk shift to find a letter from you waitin for me was... well it damn near knocked me over with surprise! I knew you were out there somewhere, doin your thing, but some part of me was worried that you'd fallen in love with some Persian prince and forgotten about ol' Ollie. I'm sorry to have doubted you! I feel so high class to know someone who's been tourin in Europe. Did you play for palaces? See any royalty? I don't imagine I'll ever go there, so if it ain't all sparkles and diamonds, don't tell me cause I won't know any better.

I can't even remember what been goin on here last time I wrote you. You heard about Mr Song, right? Well he opened his tea and herb shop. Downright nice guy, and even though he's oriental he's got a lot in common with us. There's some things which you gotta hear in person next time you're down here. He and Mr Black make quite a pair.

The hotel is pretty slow these days. Abner's still around, but other guests are rare. I've been taking hours at Mr Song's tea shop, manning the till there. He's got this funny slow dance he does for exercise, called Tai Chi, which he's been teachin me. Gives me something to do with myself other than fidget, so that's a definite plus. Val moved out, but maybe I already told you that. Can't say that her bein gone changed things much. Mostly empty is still mostly empty. What with Cal gone most nights off gamblin, it sometimes is just me, Jefferson and Deco. I outgrew my bed, but it ain't no problem cause I took two of the old mattresses and put 'em end-to-end like.

I can't say all's well with me, though. I'm in some kinda trouble, see. I went with Cal gamblin from time to time, just to do somethin, you know? I don't never gamble none, just talk with folks there and try to be happy for a bit. Usually we go by the card tables - Cal bein Cal, he wants to do his thing. This one time, though, we ended up at a different joint, and they had a horse race track there. And, well, Cal went and wanted to go bet on some horses. It ain't cards, but maybe he got bored or somethin. Either way, he really wanted to win, and I wanted to help, cause I like goin out with him. So I went and talked with the horses, like I do... and I figured which one was feelin good that day, and which ones weren't. And I told Cal. I sure didn't think it were something wrong at the time, but Cal goes and wins big, and then he wants to do it again, and again. I'm havin fun too, cause it's so easy, but then the folks runnin the join catch on that we're winnin too much, and they ain't too happy. Now they say we're cheatin, and we owe them. They want everything that we won back, plus more, and I ain't got that money! Cal's tryin to win some card games to cover the loss, but he's got a reputation now, and folks aren't so willin to play him any more, especially high stakes. I just don't know what they're gonna do if we can't get the money, so we'll get it... somehow.

Anyhow, if you decide to come back this way, you might not want to go tellin anyone that you know me. Might not be good for any of us.

Ollie
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