To Mrs. Rebecca Gomez,
A few months now I’ve been visiting your Chocolate Canufactory, and I am routinely surprised by the variation in products offered. You have familiarised me with products I never have dreamed of, foremost having been Chocolate, and each time I come I shiver to think what next might meet me! I consider you my Guide to the world’s bounty, although I never set foot out of New York.
It is a longstanding tradition in my family to be wary of those potential dangers so abound in Modern Society, and I confess this learning has oft kept me from running afoul in my life, and you sparked caution in me whence I learned firstly of your personal history and your family’s dubious affiliations, but then there must be exceptions to the rule, and while I cannot speak for your family, I can say that you are indeed one of the good ones, hiding your unnatural and compromising faith from the face of your business.
I count you among those who have given me a taste of the natural world, endowed to all of man by the Creator, and this is undeniably His work. I pray you have a swell week, and I will see you the next, surely the next after that if not.
Sincerely,
Christopher Williams
Rafael, I love “Christopher’s” enthusiasm and how chocolate makes him reassess his religious biases even as he asserts religious platitudes towards the end. There is a lovely book about Jews and chocolate that talks more about the Gomez family’s chocolate business: https://www.google.com/books/edition/On_the_Chocolate_Trail/qBopvgAACAAJ?hl=en
best,
Laura