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Back THE MAILMAN Save as PDF
Chapters (57)
  1. DEDICATION
  2. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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“I got a letter from my fiancé in Phoenix, telling me she wanted to break up. I called her, but her phone was out of service. So I took a sick day and drove down to ASU. She’d never sent me the letter. Her phone had been left off the hook accidentally on the day I tried to call.” He scratched his nose. “Maybe I’m just looking for an easy excuse, but I think there might be something to what you say. I think there’s something going on with the mailman. I still don’t entirely believe you, and I hope we’re not turning Mr. Smith into a scapegoat for our problems, but I’ll keep a watch out.”

“That’s all I ask. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

“And we’ll let you know if anything happens with your water and power and phone letters.”

Doug thanked Mike and returned down the hall. The young policeman let him through the security gate into the lobby, and walking out to the car, Doug felt better than he had in quite a while. It was nice to be able to share some of the burden.

He got in the Bronco and took off.

On the way home, he passed the mailman, unloading mail from the box in front of Circle K, sorting the envelopes, carefully putting some into his plastic tray, shoving the others into a brown paper sack.

He waved as Doug drove by.

17

The next day the mail was normal. It had still been delivered at some odd hour before they woke up, but the mail itself was neither unnaturally good nor unnaturally bad. There was a subscription notice from Newsweek, a Visa bill, some junk mail. Nothing out of the ordinary, though that itself was out of the ordinary.

Doug tried to call Stockley at the paper, but the secretary said he was not taking any calls. He told her to give the editor his name, and after a great deal of convincing she agreed to do so, but when she came back on the line, she informed him that it was paste-up day and that the editor refused to be interrupted by anyone. She said he’d call Doug back when he got the opportunity.

The mail was normal the next day as well, and Doug began to think that maybe he had jumped to conclusions, that he had overreacted, that he had been wrong. Tritia said nothing, but he could tell that she was thinking the same thing, and he could tell that she was relieved.