The package that arrives for Chidiebere from the Livesong regional office is quietly festive, wrapped in a dark forest green paper, with a thick white ribbon crisscrossing its surface and tied in a neat bow. A minimal holiday card can be slid out from under the ribbon’s hold, on which is written the following:
Dear Chidiebere,
Though I know that nothing could ever replace what you have lost, I hope these gifts will bring you some comfort. Remember that it’s okay to be sad or angry at times and that you deserve as much a chance at happiness as everyone else, so don’t be afraid to ask the adults around you for things you need.
Though it’s unsigned, the contents within the box have been packaged with care. The first is a round plush toy, colored a friendly baby blue, and perfectly sized for a ten year old’s squeezing embrace.
The second item, wrapped a couple more times in tissue paper, is a hardcover illustrated libretto of Die Zauberflöte opera. The inside pages are covered in imaginative illustrations, written text, and musical score. Though the book’s primary language is German, there are Federation Standard translations accompanying many passages to explain the gist of the story.
The final half an inch’s worth of pages are not pages at all, but instead a hard shell containing a molded compartment, which houses a small portable audio player and data rod that contains the full opera’s audio, so one may listen to the score and use the libretto book to follow along.