Dear Anonymous Sponsor - Chapter 5

“Well, I mean.”

Millian snapped his fingers when he saw the large boxes filing the hallway in front of Judith’s room.

“Your sponsor is an incredibly wealthy person, right?”

In the morning, a postal wagon stopped by the nursery, pouring dozens of boxes in front of the entrance then leaving right away. The boxes looked as if they belonged to a family of six who had just moved. More boxes piled up in the hallway since Judith’s room was packed.

“You’re bigger than I thought, Judith.”

Contrary to Judith’s embarrassment, Rachel couldn’t hold back her laughter.

“What did you write in your Christmas letter for your sponsor?”

“I didn’t write anything in particular…”

“Did you tell him that Wortherford didn’t give you enough clothes?”

“I would never!”

Dozens of winter clothes have arrived in the boxes. Judith remembered that she mentioned going downtown to buy some nice winter clothes.

But this was a little ridiculous.

‘He sent all of this just because of that one line I wrote in the letter?’

It took more than two hours for the five of them to open the boxes and organize the clothes inside. Judith, who knew little about fashion, wasn’t used to something so luxurious. There were even the same clothes in different sizes.

“Such a waste of money…”

Wasn’t it a little too ignorant to spend this much money?

There were twenty dresses and coats for everyday wear which were available in three sizes. Multiply it by three, and there were all sixty pairs. There were also dozens of thick underpants and tights to wear under the one-piece dresses, a fur hat in various shapes, scarves, earplugs, and gloves.

She even called the post office to check if they made a mistake in their delivery, but she only got one answer from them.

Address: Kinsley 54, 23 Wortherford Nursery. In front of Judith Wortherford’s room. Isn’t this right?

She searched all the packages if there was a simple card, let alone a reply to the letter she sent, but she found no such thing. The parcels contained neither the address nor the name of the sender.

“I feel like I’ve gotten a glimpse of the mindset of the Waltz aristocrats.”

Millian, who quickly adjusted to what was happening, chuckled happily.

“Hey, Jude. Think about it. Do you think a rich man with enough money to splurge on something like this picked all these things and packed them all up himself?”

“Then?”

“One phone call to the clothing store would have been enough. ‘Hey, a rich person from Waltz here, wrap all the clothes there and send them to this address,’ How simple and cool is that!

“No, Millie.”

Charlotte, the oldest child in the nursery, said in an excited voice next to him.

“Would you have called them yourself? Ordering the butler would have been enough!”

“Yeah, if it’s just so easy for them to send this much to the child they’re sponsoring, they probably have five houses in Waltz. Surely they have a butler!”

Natia, who was clinging to Judith’s left shoulder, shouted in excitement.

“You said you didn’t have winter clothes, so instead of sending you donation money, he just sent you clothes to wear right away!”

As she listened to their noisy chatter, she painted an image in her head—a wealthy gentleman living with dozens of servants and butlers in a magnificent mansion or a sophisticated lady sitting on a couch and enjoying a cup of coffee reading her letter. Judith wasn’t creative enough to imagine her anonymous sponsor’s features, so the faces were naturally blank.

A person living with five or six employees in Waltz might not have understood that she was going downtown to buy winter clothes.

‘Just a snap of your fingers can call a skilled seamstress?’

The imaginary butler asked the sponsor, ‘What would be the clothes’ sizes?’ the sponsor would reply, ‘Tell them to make them all in different sizes, then send it to the nursery.’ Judith guessed that she would never understand the way wealthy people think.

Since some clothes didn’t fit her, she gave them to her siblings in the nursery as an untimely New Year’s present. Judith took the hats, mufflers, socks, gloves and gave them to the boys.

She gave Millian an exceptionally thick and finely textured scarf, and he was almost in tears when he hugged her.

“I’m so lucky to be your partner! Thank you for the bribe. I’ll take care of it with all my heart.”

“It’s not a bribe…”

“I love you, Jude!”

Thirty little children sang their appreciation in unison that it was hard to hear.

“Thank you, sister!”

“You’re a good person, Jude!”

“Judith’s Santa Claus is a good man!”

Judith suddenly felt the atmosphere of a noisy but friendly family.

‘Did my sponsor expect this from the start?’

She was probably right. Judith was in a nursery with forty-five children, and no matter how many clothes her sponsor would send her, it will never go to waste. It seemed like a package sponsored for a group.

‘My sponsor must have been a compassionate person.’

She thought that was all of it, but she found elemental official language composition and pronunciation textbooks at the bottom of the box.

“…The wrapping paper is somehow different.”

Maybe her sponsor mistook her for a six or seven-year-old? Judith held books about <Learning the Official Language Volume 1> and <Ten Minutes of Dictation a Day>.

Her sponsor’s image in her head changed from an elegant young gentleman to a generous older man with a white beard.

Since the letter arrived safely, her sponsor had read it. Maybe it was implicit permission that she could keep sending letters in the future.

So Judith wrote a letter of gratitude for her sponsor again. She also included some stories in her daily life in the nursery, like the last time.

When winter passed, and spring came, she had to sort through a pile of clothes again that was more than the first time. There were dozens of clothes for the change of season.

After that day, Judith wrote a letter with great care for her sponsor again.

March 9th, spring of 1921

As my sponsor, I can’t even fathom just how rich you are.

I will probably remember this year as the year I received the most gifts in my life. If I don’t have a sudden growth spurt, I don’t think I need to buy clothes for the next few years.

Of course, I’m happy and grateful for the presents, but I’m worried that you might have misunderstood what I wrote in my letter. I’m not being neglected here in the nursery. On the contrary, everyone is treating me well. Director Rachel had asked me to correct the misunderstanding.

I always shared the gifts with everyone, and they’re curious about your identity. Millian seems convinced that you have about five villas in Waltz.

Who are you?

-Judith Wortherford, curious about your financial resources

P.S.

Still, you don’t have to send me excessive and extravagant gifts the next time. No matter how hard I think about it, it’s too much for me. 

But I’ll gladly accept your kind attention!

Days of peace passed by faster than the exhausting ones. After she got used to being called Jude and not Judith, her days went by peacefully.

After spending another Christmas, a new year came.

The winter winds in Kinsley that blew northwest of the Federal State’s territory were colder every year. It was a bit difficult to get used to spending winters there.

On snowy days, Judith always recalled the first time she arrived in the nursery—headlights and car tracks scattered against the evenly snow-covered ground. Sometimes she thought of her companion in the backseat.

Just as she guessed, she never saw the man again.

She had been waiting deep down.

Did he also live in Waltz?

Did the man know who her sponsor was? If they ever meet again, she thought of asking him directly about who gave the order to escort her safely to the nursery.

He said he would come back to visit Kinsley one day, but he never did.

Judith brushed off the snow piled up on the mailbox and opened the lid. Since many people were living in the nursery, the mail was always full of letters of all kinds.

But this time, there wasn’t any for her.

It was nothing new. Judith still wrote a letter to her sponsor on the last day of each month, but she had never received a reply. Even though she knew she wouldn’t get a response, it still stung.

‘Is it because I added a postscript on the letter I wrote last time?’

Or was it because she inquired about his finances?

Her anonymous sponsor sent whole donations to the nursery every month and didn’t send a pile of gifts like last year anymore.

Of course, she didn’t feel bad about it since she didn’t like receiving excessive gifts. However, she felt like she had been knocking on the door of an empty house for months. She was the only one who kept reaching out, and to her surprise, she felt a little disappointed.

But she knew the house wasn’t empty.

For a moment, she thought she was crazy for making a subtle request in her letter last month.

Dear Anonymous Sponsor,

If you exist, could you please send me even if it’s just a dot?

Of course, she regretted it as soon as she sent it. Fortunately, she stopped herself from writing down more words, ‘Is it because I refused your gifts?’

Judith wasn’t naive enough to believe that her sponsor was so busy that he didn’t even have time to sit down and write her a reply. She was looking forward to it, and now she felt a little empty.

She was worried that something terrible had happened, but the monthly donations sent to the nursery remained the same.

“Maybe he just doesn’t feel the need to reply…’

Her sponsor might be feeling annoyed that she kept sending letters each month. Can she still write to him?

Feeling sullen, Judith scraped a bunch of letters and heard a loud voice behind her.