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Snail Mail – Friday Fictioneers

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Good Wednesday! Time for another episode of Friday Fictioneers!  Our illustrious leader, Rochelle, has challenged us once again to use a photo and write a 100-word-max story inspired by it. This week, it is Jean L. Hays’ photo. Should you dare (g’head, try it!) click on the frog below and add your link.  It’s fun and addictive.

©Jean L. Hays

Snail Mail

She had been waiting for her lover’s letter for ages.

Patience, she told herself. There is nothing you can do, so stop fretting.  She refused to believe it was anything else but an extremely slow postal service. They did call it “snail mail” after all!

The grandfather clock in her hallway chimed eleven times, reminding her the mailman had passed.

She made her way down the driveway, telling herself not to expect anything.

What now, a box? Oh right, she was expecting a clipper for her dog.

Phooey. Not even for her. It was addressed to the former owners. Sigh.

166 thoughts on “Snail Mail – Friday Fictioneers”

  2. Oh, poor gal. She really needs to either reach out to clarify, or move on … Even snails get insulted when it takes THAT long … 😉
    Nice one, Dale!
    I haven’t yet gotten to reading everyone’s but I got yours into my inbox, so yay!
    Na’ama

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Dear Dale,

    Her expectancy and excitement are tangible, as is her disappointment. Bummer. Recently one of my friends who ordered a bunch of cards and prints sent her check. After a month, we figured it got lost in the mail, so she sent another. About two days after I received the second check the first one made it. I’m pretty sure it was sent by pony express. The pony was off that week so they sent a donkey in its place.
    Well done in any event.

    Shalom and lotsa swift hugs,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 2 people

    • Dear Rochelle,

      Glad that came across… And I swear… snail mail is not up to snuff, lately, is it? Donkey instead of pony explains so much, doesn’t it?

      Shalom and lotsa hand-written love,

      Dale

      Like

  5. Neat tale, Dale (hey, that rhymes!), it really is. I was hoping there’d be some cool surprise in that box. Oh, well …
    Ah, the days of writing old school letters! Always great. Again, nice story! Neat!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. A great story Dale….. We ALL know ‘that kind of service’ – usually resulting in lengthy mail exchange, frustrating phone calls with long waiting hours of terrible music….. hope your girl got her letter, in the end! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Or simply from.China and stuck on some warehouse because of this pandemic (that part of the story is true. I’ve been waiting three months).

      Like

  15. Oh, poor woman! I hope she gets some news soon. I think we need a sequel. 🙂
    Did you ever see that old British sitcom, As Time Goes By with Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer? Their letters got lost in the mail, and so each thought the romance was off, and then they meet again thirty some years later.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Mail time, mail time, mail time!!!

    There was a time when the mail brought things — magazines, letters, interesting things. Now? Bills and crap. But I still get excited every day by the arrival of the mail. There could be something, couldn’t there?

    No, not much these days.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I also still love receiving mail (outside of the few bills that somehow I don’t get electronically)…
      I get The New Yorker mag – because I love to watch it accumulate as I try to find time to read it 😏

      No, not much these days…

      Liked by 1 person

        • I used to do that with a Canadian magazine that I loved – Maclean’s, then lost control and realised I was wasting my money… kinda like what I’ve been doing with the New Yorker. Much as I love reading it, I just don’t.

          Liked by 1 person

          • I got Sports Illustrated and Newsweek every week for years and years. I read them religiously. A couple of years ago, I tried to relive the magic and subscribed to Smithsonian and Nat’l Geographic – which are both monthlies. Something about them leads me to “eh, I got time. I’ll read it tomorrow.”

            Liked by 1 person

          • I know what you mean! There is an appeal to them, you want to but somehow life seems to get in the way (and blogging. Bloody hell does blogging suck a lot of time!!)

            Liked by 1 person

  18. Another tale of a common, in todays world, incident of disappointment in the mail. Ot was it UPS? I still remember the days when you received an actual HANDWRITTEN letter and the thrill of opening it. I know, ancient history. Right? Good story Dale.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Ah haha! You got me on this one. Lol… not sure why, but it’s like a game to guess your last lines. ⚡️💥
    I thought the box was going to be filled with letters from her lover… letters lost in time… in the dead letter office, or some schmeleckie like that.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. Q

    What she SHOULD do is look up the address for the recipient of the box and then go find them, like Tom Hanks in Castaway . . . she makes her own ending rather than depending on the universe. It’s kitschy, it’s adventurous, it’s even somewhat romantic unless the recipient ends up being a Scientologist. Or a Kardashian. Both?

    B

    Liked by 1 person

    • I agree totally! Along the same vein as when you stop searching, you find. I am, thank you, Sandra. As I hope you.sre.as.well.

      Like

  42. Ha! Ha! I keep getting mail addressed to one of the previous owners of my house who probably owned it over 20 years ago. Lovely brochures of seafront investment property for sale, maybe one day I’ll win the lottery and buy them all.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Oh, I know what you mean. There’s always that one that no matter how many times you do a return to sender, you still get.

      Like

  43. Your story evoked memories of going to the mailbox as a 15-year-old girl. We had moved from Oregon to Minnesota, and waiting for that letter from the boyfriend I’d left behind was excruciating! Each day that it didn’t come was a dismal day. When it finally did come, a break-up letter, I didn’t even care any more. I knew. Wow. Memories 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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