Morning all and welcome to the final prompt of the week. For me, it has been a rough one. Sadly the highlight was finally getting a root canal scheduled at the dentist’s office. Which should tell you something about my week. But let us press on. Timers at the ready and off we go.
I need to think about some of the details but I like the reluctant participant covering themselves because they don’t trust the others angle. Just need to figure out the details.
Friday, August 23rd: I waved at the mail man.
I waved at the mail man. He smiled and waved, just as he did every day. I clicked the timer and let it run. Thus far his time moving down the block, around the corner and circling back to the main road was fairly consistent. Enough people had days with and without packages for it to be fairly consistent. Still I couldn’t resist one more time check.
I was reasonably certain of my timing. The first and the fifteenth of the month were always a little slower as those seemed to be heavy mail days. Subscriptions came in as did bulk flyers. Bills were also paid so many little red flags were up calling for the mail man to stop even if they weren’t receiving anything. There were less bills coming in these days, but all of the garbage companies that serviced this area refused to go on automatic payment. There was often much grumbling as for some people that was the only check they wrote in a month and the only reason they still had checkbooks in the first place.
Still it guaranteed a stop. The first and the fifteenth were always two minutes longer than the other days. I watched and recorded long enough to be sure. I checked the time. ‘He should be coming right around the corner just about now,’ I thought I glanced up just as the mail truck turned the corner. I smiled pleased with myself even a I stepped out of view. I marked the time down, more out of habit than anything else.
Tomorrow was the day. I knew my element of the plan was in place. In truth, the mail man was not part of it. I didn’t trust the others. I wanted to have one independent witness who could swear that I was in my home and not elsewhere when everything went down. With the timing, I knew I could wave to the mail man, race through the back of the house and through backyard to my destination, pass along my elements and be back in the house before anyone realized I was gone. I made a note to remember to look for any outstanding features on the mail van. Our mailman decorated for events.
They were small things, but well worth noting. There were flags in the window for any patriotic themed holiday, as well ass decorations for assorted other holidays. Some I recognized, others I didn’t. There was one almost every day and he changed them out. Today there was a stuffed cat on the dash for some reason. Tomorrow, I would make note of it, and then make a point of looking for holidays involving it when I returned. I had a daily holiday page book marked and would click on it and leave it open when I left.
‘Need to leave my phone on the desk as well,’ I reminded myself.
I took another look at my notebook. It would be disposed of as soon as I returned. Tomorrow was trash day. Anything connecting me to my part in the scheme would go out with the trash. Since my part was early and there was a good chance of nothing being visible to anyone for at least a week I felt fairly safe on that account.
Not for the first time I wondered how I had gotten involved. I shook my head. I knew how I had gotten involved. I just didn’t want to be further involved. This would clear the slate. The problem was of course that I would be of no further use to the schemes. I fully expected that if anything went wrong, fingers would be pointed in my direction. I worried, hoping I had done enough to cover myself.
I worried over that the rest of the day and through the night. I slept fitfully and woke feeling like I swallowed a box of live frogs.
Ten til Midnight 