Girl with a Coin

I found an Australian coin in my room last night. I was shaking things off my bed (my room is small and the closet is the size of a coffin and sometimes my bed turns into a table because my room is filled with things, clothes mostly, a few unhung drawings, a rolling clothing rack that holds coats and dresses, earrings hanging from a piece of gauze nailed to the wall, shoes, sweaters unraveling from the shelves and bracelets scattered on flat surfaces, lots of loose paper because I print out my stories and then I make notes on them and leave them in piles and books, books are stacked in the bookshelf because there is not enough room for all of them, though the floor is mostly clear except during the weekend when it gets hectic and I change in out and out of things three times and throw rain-soaked jeans on the floor, and t-shirts that I've spilled coffee on, and socks).

So this coin catches on the edge of my comforter, flips to the floor, glinting, and I could already tell that it was foreign, the metal's all wrong and it says 10 in a large script that isn't familiar and I thought it would be from Japan or China or maybe a euro from the most recent venture. I picked it up and Queen Elizabeth II was on one side and on the other were feathers, very pretty, very delicate, on closer inspection there were not just feathers, but a whole bird, with the bottom of the bird and the feet and the wing and the rest, the head, hidden behind all those feathers. I can't remember the name of the bird but I feel like it starts with a "c" (cassowary?) and it was minted in 1993.

Alexa moved to Australia a while ago and to date she has sent me two letters. One on the unicorn stationary I gave her, enclosing an article about Nick Cave, whom I love, and apparently she loves him too, though we did not share this love before she left, and then a letter with 40 American dollars enclosed to reimburse me the cost of shipping her a package and a CD with the Noisettes and Thao. Actually, I was listening to the CD when I found the coin.

And I don't remember an Australian coin being in either letter. And I've never been to Australia. I should have said this from the beginning. Because that makes this a mystery.