BY Audacia Ray
Dear Brink House Historical Society:
This cease-and-desist letter serves as a notice for you to stop your persistent slander of me,
including but not limited to:
1. Tours of the Brink family home that overtly state that I was an unstable young woman
who killed a visiting gentleman for no reason. The invitation for visitors to speculate on
motives for this act are wildly off-base and highly stigmatizing to myself and my
descendants.
2. Portrayal of me as a fragile, Victorian recluse with one very close friend. That
insufferably uptight portrait you always pass around of myself and my dear Emily is a
dress-up photograph. We posed in our grandmothers’ stifling garments, starched and stiff
and itchy, to make a mockery of that kind of womanhood. When we were finally allowed
to move after the photographer was done making the picture, we burst into laughter and
could not stop laughing.
3. Lies about the nature of the so-called “love triangle” among the aforementioned young
man, myself, and Emily. Although I will not deny that mine was the hand that dealt the
fatal blows, I am appalled at how limited your imaginations–not to mention your
historical research skills–are around the details. How willfully you ignore the significance
of details, like that Emily and I shared a bed. We were not just very close friends, we
were lovers. This arrangement was something of a public secret at the time, but more
common than you have been led to believe. And that man – he was betrothed to Emily
and angry that he could not access what we two had. He deserved what he got. There was
nothing unstable about that; I drew a logical conclusion and took action.
You are instructed to immediately halt the repetition of these damaging lies. Although you
cannot acknowledge this in written correspondence as I do not have a mailing address, I am
regularly in and among the premises, so I will know.
Though I wish to resolve this issue amicably, especially after holding my tongue so long about
this distressing issue, I must advise you that I have engaged the services of Ties That Bind
Family Law Center. My lawyers and I are prepared to take the next steps on this issue if you
refuse to comply with this cease-and-desist notice. These actions may include but are not limited
to my reclamation of the family home through unpleasant and not financially exploitable
hauntings criminal sanctions against you including suit for damages I have suffered due to your
slander.
Sincerely,
Abigail Brink
Audacia Ray (they/she) is a queer non-binary femme who spends their time in Brooklyn and the Catskill Mountains. A Tin House Scholar who has published short fiction in Necessary Fiction, Litro Magazine, Penumbra, and NonBinary Review, they also serve their LGBTQ community as Director of Community Organizing and Public Advocacy at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. audaciaray.com