[ WP ] During your first day working the at the postal service , you are assigned to work in the Dead Letters office and find a letter from yourself .

I did n't tell anybody but Dad that I was working at the USPS. I know my Facebook friends would just crack wise about shorts or dogs or something, even though I'm working in Dead Letter. Ca n't blame'em, if I'd tried harder in school, maybe I could have gone to college. Dad had told me I'd do just fine without it. He could n't afford to pay my way through school on a baker's wages, and I sure as shit was n't getting any scholarships. Still, it hurt to see my friends head off to Wichita State. I had applied there, never heard back. Who knows? Maybe I'll find my application here. 
 
 We've got a pipeline in the DL department, and they've set me up right at the start; I get the first pass at categorization. See, for a letter to wind up here, it's got ta be undeliverable to the recipient, and unreturnable to the sender. By far the biggest pile is letters from kiddos to Santa without a proper return address, and those pretty much go right in the trash. Then you've got a fair amount that just do n't have a return address at all, and either it's got no postage or the address is wrong. I toss those over to Mark and Stacy, and they get to decide if it warrants opening the letter to get more clues, which is usually only if it looks like there might be money or valuables in the envelope. Otherwise, they get to try to look up a working address for the recipient. Anything left over goes to Hassan, and he can usually figure out what to do based on the sender or recipient's name, or the postage cancellation stamp's location. 
 
 I got through the morning okay. Mark, Stacy, and Hassan took me out to lunch at TGI Friday's. They're good people, maybe a bit jaded. I'm not great at reading folks, but I think Mark's a lifer -- he used to work delivery and has a nice pension coming up in a decade. I do n't see myself working here for more than a few years. It's not what Mom would have wanted for me. 
 
 But we're back in the office now, and this pile of letters is never gon na get any smaller, and the quicker I accept that, the quicker I can start to settle in here. 
 
 **To: ** Santa 
 **From: ** Shelly, Park City, KS 
 *Trash* 
 
 **To: ** Steven ~~Livingson~~ Livingston, 1002A Baker (? ) St, Wichita KS 
 **From: ** < blank > 
 *Toss it to Mark* 
 
 **To: ** Tooth Fayry 
 **From: ** Mikey 
 *Trash* 
 
 **To: ** Micheal Jordan, Chicago, IL 
 **From: ** Billy, 847 Main St, Andale, KS 
 
 `` Hey, what's the policy on letters to celebs that we could obviously deliver, but they're just gon na throw it away anyway?'' I ask to no one in particular. 
 
 `` Toss it,'' Mark says, `` they're usually kids asking for autographs, and these letters are old enough that they're not living with mommy and daddy at this point anyway.'' 
 
 Sensing that might have been insensitive, he asks, `` You're not still living in your parents' basement, are ya Derek?'' A fair question, given that I'm a 25 year old working at the Post Office in a time when everyone is sending emails. 
 
 `` Nope,'' I reply, `` I've got a shoebox of an apartment out on the edge of uptown.'' It was n't a lie, but it just as easily could have been. If I had n't found this job, I probably would have had to move back in with Dad. 
 
 After an hour or so of sorting, I came across something unexpected. I had almost tossed it, having already developed that instinct in response to that typical six year old's handwriting. 
 
 **To: ** Mommy, Heaven 
 **From: ** Derek, < smudged > Sunflower Dr, Haysville KS 
 
 Sunflower Drive is where I grew up! 
 
 It's been so long and I do n't remember writing this, but it feels like something I would have done. There's a ton of stamps on it, I guess I knew it was gon na be hard to deliver. Fuck the pipeline, I'm tearing this open now. 
 
 *Dear mommy, * 
 
 *I miss you alot. * 
 *Daddy says you are playing fetch with Spot and eating ice cream with angels now. I hope that one day we can play ~~togeter~~ together. * 
 *Miss Fisher says I did very good on my math test. I hope you are proud of me. * 
 *Daddy has been drinking alot of his special root beer. I think he is sad. He doesnt tell funny jokes anymore. I hope you will watch out for him. * 
 
 *Love, * 
 *Derek* 
 
 *PS if you see God please tell him I'm sorry for pulling Jenny's hair in class. * 
 
 Everyone's looking at me right now. I'm going to have to find another job, and I can tell from their faces that they already know why. I ca n't work at a place where letters like this are going to end up in the trash.
