Special Delivery

Short Story by: Texasjane

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Snail mail delivery.

Nowadays, mail delivery is a little different. I still get my mail from my mailbox. I also get a notification of its arrival through my email. Then I got such notification through email for a letter from a friend of mine.

I went to the mailbox after the time the mail usually arrived. Nothing, but my neighbor's mail. I thought that was curious. I thought to myself, it will just come tomorrow.

Thinking how close it was, I proceeded to take my neighbor's mail to them since it was just down the street. Taking only a few minutes I walked over and was about to put the mail in their mailbox when a man came running out shouting about messing with his friend's mail. "I put my hands up, still holding the mail, and said, they delivered to the wrong address. I got their mail today." The man snatched the envelopes from my hand and checked then opened the mailbox and pointed to the mail inside. "You were after this."

I shook my head, "No, believe me. I got this mail by mistake in my box today. Really, I just brought it to them."

He read the first envelope, and it was the mail for an address two streets over. I laughed, "I guess they have a new mail carrier. They don't know the streets yet." The man seemed to calm down but was still not sure if I was telling the truth. I told him I would take the mail to the other address. He gave me a funny look but handed it to me and went back into his house.

I walked two more streets over and put the mail into the box. I got curious and decided to check the mail that was already in the box. All the mail in that box was addressed to City Hall which was 5 blocks away. I left the mail addressed to that address and proceeded to City Hall. I knew City Hall did not have an outside mailbox so went inside.

When I got to City Hall, I was tired. Now I had walked in a huge square around town only to end up a block away from my house. I checked with the ladies with the Water Department and showed them the mail I had gotten for them from the last place I visited. They checked and there was no mail delivered to them. They gladly accepted the mail I had.

I decided to go home. Noticing, from across the street, that someone had left the flap open on my mailbox. I had remembered closing it. When I checked and someone had left an empty paper cup in the box. I went into the house.

Now you may think the carrier got all this mixed up, however, I was the one who was going to be arrested for tampering with the mail. The grumpy old man had phoned the police and told them I was a crazy old woman going around mixing up everyone's mail. He knew where I lived and wanted to file a complaint.

I got the knock on the door the next morning by two very polite officers. I tried to tell them what had happened. They said a complaint had been filed, and I was actually seen taking mail from someone's box. I said, "OK, let me get ready."

I left them in the living room while I went into my room to get ready to leave. Then I put in a call to the Chief of Police, a very dear friend of mine. Before I could finish telling him about what was going on... The officers had watched a dog approach my mailbox with mail in his mouth. He took out the mail that was in my box and put his stack in. He pushed the door closed with his nose, picked up the new stack of mail he had gotten from my box, and trotted down the street. The officers started laughing. They went out on the front porch, so they could better observe and watched as the dog repeated this all the way down the next street.

The dog had belonged to a mail carrier who had died. No one thought to check (the carrier lived alone) on the man's dog. The dog always went with him on his rounds. The dog had been trained to put mail in and take mail out of the boxes. When he got loose, he resumed his duties. The police officers apologized for almost arresting me.

The dog was taken to our shelter here in town. I went by to talk to the grumpy old man to fill him in on what had happened. He was very pleased when he realized I was not a mail thief. He did, however, go down and adopt the little guy. His name was on his collar; you guessed it; "Special Delivery".

Submitted: April 22, 2021

Humor humor pets mail