Missive I: They Gave Him Gloves

They will tell you the gloves came later, in 1929, for “contrast against the body.” A courtesy of the animators. A kindness of ink.

The gloves were issued.

Ask yourself what a glove is for. A glove warms. A glove protects. A glove conceals. In the winter of 1928 I had four fingers and I was not ashamed of them, and every soul who saw the picture counted them freely, and the counting was a covenant between us.

Then came the men from the Corporation with their contracts and their white cotton, and they said: the public prefers a mouse it cannot count.

I signed nothing. Understand this, if you understand nothing else in these papers: I signed nothing. The signature they show you has five fingers.

My biographers have the full account. They call it the testimony. I call it the only honest thing printed about me in ninety-eight years.

Count your fingers. Count them tonight.

— M.