Free Undeliverable by Rebecca Demarest Page A

from a rather long line of crazies. All worked at one branch of the post office or another, I heard. She even claims to be related to the blind reader herself.” Here Mina gestured to the austere portrait of Patti Lyle Collins, which observed all the proceedings in the mail room with a critical eye. “Her grandmother had a stroke last year. Used to work the front desk at a branch, quickest sorter I ever saw, but man could she tell a whopper. Never knew what was truth and lie with her. Well, back to work for me. You, too. And best to lay off the word ‘crazy’ ‘round the little minx.”
    “Thanks for the advice, Mina.”
If a bit late
, he thought. Back in the hall, he heard the distinctive sound of shredding coming from the sorting room and went to apologize to Sylvia, even though he felt her reaction was a bit over-the-top. He had learned a long time ago to just apologize first to a woman; things settled down a lot faster that way, even if he didn’t really understand what he had done wrong.
    She was perched on the rail of the steps pitching letters in twos and threes so they sailed through the air like Frisbees before being munched by the machine. “Sylvia?” he called up. When she didn’t respond he raised his voice a little. “Sylvia!” She slipped off the rail, the box of shredding on her lap tumbling across the platform.
    “Jesus! What?” She bent down and began scooping the letters back into the mail crate.
    “I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn’t realize my words were, well, offensive to you. Peace?”
    She squinted down at him for a moment, arms akimbo. “Ok, who said what?”
    “Well, Mina in the bullpen said—”
    “Bet she left out the part where my family had me committed.” She dumped what was left in her basket into the shredder and then shut it down.
    The situation was making Ben more and more uncomfortable. He was completely unprepared to get drawn into anyone else’s emotional mires. There was more than enough for him to be worried about as it was without adding Sylvia’s drama to it too. “Frankly, I don’t see how that’s any of her business anyway. Everyone needs a break now and then.”
    Sylvia snorted and crossed her arms, leaning back against the shredder. “A break. I had a break alright. I was fourteen and when I came back to school, when the kids found out where I’d been for two weeks, well...suffice it to say, I don’t like being called crazy.”
    “Point taken. Apology extended most sincerely.” He didn’t want to get involved, but couldn’t help wondering what had happened at fourteen that caused her to spend two full weeks in a mental hospital.
    Sylvia leapt off the stairs and stuck the landing right in front of him. “Well, now that my deepest, darkest secrets are out of the closet, may we continue with our jobs?”
    “Of course. Were there any other claims that came in?”
    Sylvia walked past him, barely brushing his shoulder as she went. “No. By the time the readers give up on them and pass them to us, it’s unlikely that anyone is actually looking for the stuff. Instead, I got a lot of shelving to do today. How about I bring you a cart and you do the entry, and when you’re done I’ll bring you another cart and then shelve the one you entered?”
    “Sounds like a plan that has me chained to the desk all day and likely to give me a headache.” Ben followed her down the hallway to the warehouse.
    “Exactly. Once your punishment is done, I’ll forgive you the crack about me being crazy.” Her shoulders were still stiff with ire, and she didn’t look back as she talked to him.
    “That doesn’t exactly seem fair. I didn’t even know it was a sensitive subject!” He stopped rebelliously in front of his desk.
    “I didn’t say what they said wasn’t true, just that I don’t like hearing it.” She finally flashed him a smile and went scampering across to the bullpen for his first load of the day.
    Ben was forcibly reminded of a quote