Pick it Up

it was mid afternoon, she had run some errands and the last one was to drop a card off at the post office. She had driven past this one many times, and smiled each time at the tiny old building. The white paint was thin and the wood unapologetically snuck out to feel the sun’s warmth. She pulled into the dirt lot and parked her truck, grabbed the envelope and walked into a time capsule inside the little building. Everything looked original from many decades ago, and the clerk managed a wispy smile as she exchanged the blue envelope fora receipt that printed out of a machine that appeared awkwardly out of the place on the old wooden counter.

She stepped outside and saw it. She was always one for being observant, noticing every little detail in people and her surroundings. It was laying by an almost naked bush, and it wasn’t near where someone would have parked. There were no tire marks nearby and it looked like the dew had soaked it more than once. She reached down and it limply lay crumpled in her hand. She was always the analyzer, the investigator and so she studied it in the sunlight. It was obviously well used , indicated by the slightly frayed edges and it appeared to have been crumpled on purpose- the creases were just too sharp for an accidental crumpling. She carefully and gently smoothed it out and it looked fine. She got in her truck and carefully smoothed it out on the carpeted dash- it could dry there and would be safe from falling down into the console crevasse, never to be seen again.

She thought about who lost it, because it had been crumpled and obviously tossed by the bush. Did they miss it? she wondered, did they throw it in a fit of anger? Or did they just see no value in it anymore… it was still in decent shape and could be repurposed, there was always someone out there that could use it as their own.

At one time, she’d had lots of them. All over the house- given to her long ago. They were neatly stacked in different rooms of the house and she enjoyed seeing them every day. One day they just vanished, as if into thin air. She had gotten so used to seeing them every day, and adding to the little towering stacks already there. The house looked barren without them, and it felt sad that it was without them. She thought back to the times when they were just everywhere, being tossed back and forth like a happy boomerang. Sometimes bouncing off of the furniture and every once in a while, have to be retrieved from under the couch or out of the laundry basket.

She still had her own, and they were still going strong, despite the incident that de-solidified them a couple of years back. She always kept a bunch in her pockets and tucked behind her ear, you never know when you need one to hand out.

As she drove home home, she watched it dry out and it was much lighter in color , now that the dew was gone from it. The music swelled into a soul-stirring crescendo, and she reminisced about a time long ago, when a radio was the only source of entertainment while driving. Her truck became her iPhone whenever she plugged it in, and her playlist was comprised of songs that spoke to her. She couldn’t help but sing this one, belting it out even though she only knew like 20 words out of the whole thing.

She had had a great day. She got her errands done, she had sunshine all over her and she had found a used treasure that could be given to someone else.

It’s not every day that you find a perfectly good smile abandoned at a post office.