She wrote every day, mostly describing things that had happened and her observations of people and times she was living in. Once in a while an emotional passage would find its way into her narrative but Bette was trying to control her emotions. There was no reason to make Tina worry more that she probably was already.

And so it was. Bette settled into a familiar routine, spending time with her family and Christina, working on her unfinished paintings and writing letters to Tina in the quietness of the night. As the pile of the letters grew, she began to wonder where she should hide them for Tina to find.

First she wanted to hide them under the oak tree where she had her first kiss her but she quickly abandoned that idea. That memory belonged to Christina and it would be unfair to Tina to make any connection to that event. It has to be some place that meant something to them, to Bette and Tina in the future. The problem was, all the memorable moments with Tina happened in their home in Los Angeles and that house didn’t exist in her time.

One night Bette was lying in her bed, restless, unable to sleep and thinking about the day she met Tina for the first time. It seemed like it happened forever ago but it was still fresh in her mind, like it was yesterday. Suddenly, her eyes flew open and she almost yelled, “The closet…of course. Why didn’t I think of it sooner?” She sat straight up on the bed and looked at the door to the closet that was slightly opened. She could hardly wait until the next morning to start looking for a perfect hiding spot inside.

By mid-July Bette finished all the paintings but she thought of a new one, painting of the grove with a view of the mansion. The idea came into her mind when she figured out where to hide her letters. Finding the hiding place was the easy thing but she would need to leave a clue for Tina to get there. Bette was glowing with excitement, envisioning Tina searching for the hidden clues…with Alice by her side, of course. Alice wouldn’t miss it for the world.