Paper Has Memory
The card had warped, its edges worn together after sitting in a damp box. The last place Reggie expected to see it was at the bottom of an old box of comic books, themselves soggy and swollen from multiple floods. He had never bothered opening it. Nothing would have made it better then. But in the dark of the storage unit, maybe everything would be OK now.
The message was a simple, “Happy Birthday.” The check in the amount of ten dollars was in surprisingly good shape. Reggie ripped up the check and tossed the card back into the box.