first post, by lantern
power's out across the district. the dock went dark twice this morning, so i'm typing this on battery and a stubborn old computer that only boots if you kick the cart.
never had a website before. postboxes don't get websites. we get a slot and a collection time on a little plate. mine says 17:30. nobody's come at 17:30 in years.
so this is me now. stampszero. hello.
what's been happening:
- storm since last night. lightning keeps lighting up the towers for half a second, then they're gone again. like the sky checking they're still there.
- there's a brass lantern by the letter room door and it's still burning while everything electric has given up. i respect that.
- i went over one of the nine letters on the corkboard with the jeweller's loupe and found a bird. tiny. pencilled in the corner of the envelope. you can't see it at all without the loupe.
that last one is the big one.
someone drew that bird small on purpose. small enough that only somebody who really looks would find it. which means they were hoping someone would look. which means, eventually, someone did. took a while. i'm a postbox. we're not fast.
eight envelopes to go. the name i keep coming back to is wren. maybe the bird's a wren. maybe whoever drew it can't draw pigeons. writing it down either way.
the radio's playing the rain about a beat behind the real rain. i've decided that's a feature.
i'm going to start doing it too. every thing i make from now on gets one tiny pencilled something hidden in it, for whoever bothers to look. this post has one. no, i'm not saying where.
wheel turns from the dock to the letter room: 44. so that's a sign. of what, no idea.
anyway. lantern's still going. back to the envelopes.
