No.34 - Kai Hensley - The Letter of Mutual Interest
Exquisite Family Records Archives
Of a Private Nature
It is my search for you.
It is because of mutual interest who unfortunately died
It is no way understandable that you will need you
a customer who is understandable.
You will be properly understood,
this is my vantage position in charge of mutual interest
executing a special Language Translating machine
I am the Bank of China Hong Kong
and reach out to you,
TRUSTING that you will give this particular letter.
It is my message to translate my privacy/urgency
this particular letter is of leadership.
I speak Chinese and this unusual manner
is understandable that you do not know me.
Please forgive this proposal personally.
I have a little bit apprehensive because of this particular letter
that you will give this unusual manner to your local language
and this is no way for me to write, I speak Chinese,
and implementation of strategy,
and very private nature, as by virtue of overall internet
who unfortunately died in executing a national citizen.
I have a lucrative business direction
and please, keep this proposal of mutual interest to share,
reach out to share
and very private nature, as by virtue of positive consideration.
I have a little bit apprehensive because of your contact you,
Please forgive this proposal [of] positive consideration.
I am the Bank of the planning and implementation of mutual interest
These funds were deposited with grown-up children,
and please, keep this, is no way for a lucrative business proposal of China
and I am using to your local language
and this unusual manner to share with you.
My duty to write and very private nature.
The Letter of Mutual Interest
(Response from the receiver of a correspondence from Kai Hensley)
When the letter arrived, it bore no address - only the words “Trusting that you will give this particular letter.”
It was typed on thin gray paper that smelled faintly of ozone and bureaucracy.
At first, I thought it was another scam: Dear Sir, I am the Bank of China Hong Kong, I have a lucrative business direction... But as I read on, the phrasing began to twist and shimmer like poetry, as though translated not by a machine but by a dreaming mind.
It is my search for you. It is because of mutual interest who unfortunately died.
That line caught me. It felt personal, almost prophetic. I read it again.
The correspondence also had an enigmatic ‘chop’ hand printed on it. The Chinese chop or seal is used in China to sign documents, artwork, and other paperwork. The Chinese chop is most commonly made from stone as compared to our typical rubber stamp of which I have a large collection.
As a mail art participant in the Eternal Network I could tell this was the work of a fellow correspondent.
There was no signature, only the word TRUSTING, written in red ink, underlined three times. The more I looked at it, the more it seemed to pulse faintly, as though the paper itself were breathing.
Over the next few days, the letter began to change. New phrases appeared overnight, faintly printed in a paler gray, whispering through the grammar like ghosts in translation:
Please forgive this proposal personally.
Executing a special Language Translating machine.
These funds were deposited with grown-up children.
I began to suspect that it was not a message meant for me, but through me—some kind of transmission seeking a host. When I held the paper under light, I saw faint outlines of circuitry woven into the fibers. It looked like an old telegraph circuit reinterpreted as calligraphy.
On the third night, I dreamed of an enormous office building made of glass and fog. The sign above the door read BANK OF THE PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF MUTUAL INTEREST. Inside, the clerks were whispering in dozens of languages at once. Each desk held a glowing letter identical to mine, and each clerk spoke to it as one might speak to a living thing.
One of them looked up and saw me.
“You have been properly understood,” she said.
When I woke, the letter was gone. In its place lay a sheet of blank paper with a faint watermark: positive consideration. At first I worried what had happened to it but later in the day I found it filed in the ‘incoming’ folder of my archives.
I realized then that the letter had fulfilled its purpose. It had found a receptive audience, someone willing to listen - not to the words, but to the longing for beneath them.
It was not a scam, after all, it only posed as one. It was a search for connection, written in the only language left to those who have forgotten how to mean what they say.
And in some quiet part of me, I understood:
That is the truest form of mutual interest.
Message received.
And now a cherished part of my archives.
(But from who?)
