Dear Ms. Kuffel

I could see that much in the gray of the unopened email and I knew that the news I’d expecting for a month — that I was fired from a freelance publicity gig — had happened.

In threatening legalese is a list of all my failures and a demand for the return of monies paid me as well as a refusal for this month’s fee for which I’d been putting in nine-hour days.

I so, so do not want to complain or justify. Self-justification is one of those character lapses I can control. I ask that you take it on trust that the list of my crimes against the world of yoga was screwy.