Brooklyn is home to thousands of people and through out the ages, people have been coming and going. But, no one knows how people interacted. Today, we have the latest technology and we can send a message to someone on the other side of the planet, and they will receive within seconds. Back then, it was all about writing letters.  Ready Lucy, by Jennifer Egan, is an excerpt from her book “ Brooklyn was Mine”,  and in this excerpt, Egan recounts the time she was doing research for her new novel. One day, while doing her research, she meets a woman by the name of Lucy and to her luck, Lucy use to work in the Navy during WWII. She began getting to know Lucy and she continued to learn more about her romance with a her husband named Alfred through letters. Letters, because of the period in time in which they lived in, was the only means of communication they had. Within these letters, Egan learns about most the time Lucy spent in the Navy. These letter were private and it held details of the time period for example, Lucy would write “Negro” instead of African American when talking about her friend, indicating that Africans Americans were still not an equal member of society. Lucy an Egan are not related in any biological form but Egan did notice some similarities they had, for example, their to-do list looked exactly the same (22). They’re relationship develops as Egan reads through Lucy and Alfred’s corresponding letters that the Brooklyn Historical society had. As she read through this letters, Egan conveys their story in chronological order and for a vast majority, only reads Lucy’s letters to Alfred. One of the main reasons she did that is because she was working on a novel about a woman who worked in the Navy, not a man. Near the end, Egan reads one of the letters Alfred had written back to Lucy. In the midst of all of this discovery, Egan is aware of one fact: She knows that Lucy dies in the end. Egan has moment of revelation and contemplates for a moment about the life was back then and how it its today. Egan ends on a light note with her reading Alfred’s letter that were full of optimism and perpetual livelihood. Alfred had many plans that involved Lucy and he wanted to be there to enjoy every single moment of them.