Seems as if these stories get delivered to me routinely. Like the daily mail. Only better!
Thursday I made a surprising discovery at Mailbox Row. On the road at my feet was a thick envelope that was not addressed to me. It had a cellophane window with the intended recipient's name. Dave Something. And another cellophane window showing the return address. It was a federal government agency. The envelope was not the standard #10 size, but one of the square kind.
My point is, this envelope looked important. I know the sender and intended receiver, because I picked it up to see if maybe it was mine. It was to the left of EmBee, in front of the next mailbox. The addressee was not the people at that mailbox.
The Found Envelope was damp! I figured maybe it had been delivered before all of Tuesday's snow had melted on Wednesday. Perhaps it dropped, and the mailman didn't notice due to it blending in with the white snow, and it got damp as the snow melted. Then I came along around 3:30, and found it.
Anyhoo... I didn't recognize Dave Something as a person who lives out here. I figured I'd ask Farmer H if he knew of him. Meanwhile, what to do with the damp envelope? I sometimes drop mail like that back in the drive-thru mailbox, figuring it will get re-delivered. But I was headed home now. I didn't want to take Dave Something's mail, in case Farmer H didn't know him. In case somebody dropped it, and came back looking.
I put that damp envelope on top of Mailbox Row. It's chest-height. Anybody standing there could see it. I couldn't leave it laying in the road, now could I? I didn't look at the street address. I just ASSumed it was one of our roads.
When I asked Farmer H, he said he knew a Dave. But he lives out on the county road, on the way to town. Then I felt bad. THAT Dave Something wouldn't be looking around OUR Mailbox Row. He has his own.
"Well. I put it on top of the mailboxes. I thought if you knew him, you might take it to him. But since you don't, it's going to stay there all night. And it's supposed to rain."
Farmer H did not get the point. He obviously was not driving down there to see the last name on it, and decide if he knew this particular Dave Something. (I had forgotten the last name.) Anyway, it's not Farmer H's job to deliver mail found in the road.
Friday, I stopped to get the mail on the way to town. The Found Envelope belonging to Dave Something was GONE! We had rain Thursday night. Our gravel road was muddy. I don't recall any strong winds. A wet thick envelope would likely stay where I put it.
I am hoping that the mailman saw it there when delivering Friday's mail, and picked it up to re-deliver. I am also hoping to see a herd of unicorns grazing in a field on the way to town tomorrow. And mermaids swimming in the creek...
4 comments:
I would have taken it home and let it dry out then repost it the next morning. Anything left on top of our mailboxes here, catalogues usually, gets blown all over by the wind unless some shmuck like me takes it in and bins it. Not real mail, I don't bin that, I shove it in the appropriate mailbox.
Quite a mystery. You country folks lead an exciting life...
River,
I wish you'd hopped on over here to Hillmomba, and taken it home with you!
I didn't want somebody to come to get their mail and miss it. There are 10-15 mailboxes on Mailbox Row. I know the people with the box on either side of EmBee, but I didn't recognize this one. I thought I'd heard Farmer H mention someone named Dave, so I figured he'd go down on the Gator and get it and take it to him. It might have been something Dave was expecting, like me and my DISH bill! It was drying on top of the mailbox enclosure, until the rain was supposed to start after midnight. Anybody stopping for their mail would have seen it lying there.
Sioux,
WHAT? You don't have herds of unicorns, and creeky mermaids up there in the city?
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