Misfired Story

Pages are aligned

Addressed, stamped, dropped into box

Oh, no! Flap opened!

This is a true story of what happened when I decided to do a kindness for an early reader. Rather than foist a digital manuscript on a person who only reads paper, I printed out the pages after agonized editing.

Proud of myself, I slid the pages into the nifty new envelope, addressed it with elaborate care and precision, and carefully applied beautiful stamps featuring vintage dresses. Even prouder, I drove the package to the post office to make the day’s last pick-up from the mailboxes outside the building.

Here goes, I opened the car window, dropped the envelope into the slot with giddy prayer that it would do well. Just as the envelope plummeted into the dark, I watched its sealed flap open.

Would there be a kind postal employee who would reseal the envelope or tape it down? Would there be an exacting, mean-spirited person who lets it go as is, pages flying out or not, depending on its journey?

For one second, I wondered if I should beg an employee to open the box so I could rescue the sad mailing, patch it together and send it back out into the world. I didn’t have the patience. There were cars stacked up behind me, drivers waiting to toss their own special messages into the box.

I left. Let the envelope take its own journey. Whether it arrives empty or filled with my magnificent story is not in my control. What’s meant to be, will be.

How easy to be so philosophical when I have the story securely saved on my computer and backed up in several places! How marvelous to live in an age when I don’t have to rage over the loss of my masterpiece, the single piece that was going to make my fortune! How dumb not to tape the flap down with extra-special, durable mailing tape!

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