Till the Star Blooms

Chapter 16 - Post dramatic delivery

After refilling the fountain that Jim and I had cleaned out weeks ago i set out to look for fountain lights. Jim also suggested we have fish, but I said they would be more work, and more cleaning, and I wasn’t going to drain that fountain again, or put my hands in the icy water.  Searching the internet I found the perfect set of fountain lights, that weren’t too big for our fountain and that had five different colour  settings.  I showed Jim and ordered them right away. That was a week ago.

The thing was that I didn’t really have an address, most of my mail, on the rare occasion that I had some, were stored at the post office. Since my timetable didn’t coincide with Darryl’s we didn’t run into each often, unlike the other towns folks, which I guess was ashamed.

I opened the door of the small two storeys building the bell above the door chimed as I came in. I heard Darryl come down the stairs, wearing the postman uniform, despite his home only being a floor away.

“Wow aren’t you a rare sight,” he mused, moving some letters off the front counter.

“Not according the rest of the locals, anyway I was expecting a parcel, has it come in yet?” I tapped my fingers on the high bench. He disappeared and returned some time later staring at a letter.

“Nah, hasn’t arrived yet,’ he said as he returned to the other side of the bench still looking at the envelope.

“What’s that?” I asked a little annoyed by his lack of attention.

“This letter, it has no stamp and I found it resting on … its addressed to me,” he seemed surprised. He opened it up and began reading it. Should stay or leave? “I think I’m going to be robbed,” he had this distant feel to him. He didn’t object when I took the letter from him and read it for myself.

‘Expect a special delivery tonight;

You never know what might get lost in the mail,

So keep your letters close and your parcels closer’

I would have laughed at the letter had Darryl not been there.

“I think your right. Is there anything here worth stealing? Anything of value?” I asked. Darryl shook his head.

“Not that I can think of. We have a few large parcels coming this arvo, but nothing of real value. But the thief could be after money, we do run a small banking service here.”

“So it is probably money, you have a safe right, go lock up all the stuff that might be stolen.” Darryl agreed and I spent the afternoon with him. Mostly because I rarely did talk to him and plus I thought that Darryl was a witty guy, he would be best for helping capture the thief.

“So how many times have you seen the thief?” Darryl asked from his tiny kitchen, almost equal to mine.

“I’ve actually seen him a couple of times, wandering around. It annoys me that I can’t do anything. He always knows I’m there and slips away before I have a chance.” I half lied. “It’s like he’s stalking me, always in the shadows, he so pale, I guess he reminds me of a ghost” I laughed a little before falling into a sigh. Darryl returned with a hot cup of tea and handed me one. His upstairs apartment had the bare essentials and was rather neat for a guy.

“He is a strange one, I’ve read he steal all sort of things. And there’s no real pattern to his victims, I’m surprised he hasn’t robbed the mansion yet.” Just then we hear a shuffle of paper down on the first floor. Darryl jumped up and ran down the stairs. I looked for a place to place my cup, but chose to keep a hold of it and make my way down stairs.

“Keep back Cameo, he’s dangerous,” Darryl said as he saw me come down the staircase. I looked past his shoulder and saw Jayce cool as a cucumber, yet eyeing the cup in my hands. He flicked a strand away from his silver eyes.

“No more dangerous than you, Postie,” he smiled at Darryl. I couldn’t see anything in Jayce’s hands. He looked back at me. “Isn’t that right my dear, Cameo,” he grinned. I stood there frozen despite the hot cup in my hands.

“Keep away from her, you stalking thief,” I watched as Twinkles lifted an eyebrow.

“Have you been telling tales about me Sugar?” he grinned at me. I cringed at his sweet talk. If he called me ‘baby’ or ‘honey’ next, I was seriously going to knock his face right into the ground. I turned back just in time to see him shift his gaze to something on one of the sorting tables. “Well I seemed to have interrupted you guys, so don’t mind me.” He edged his way to the table and swiped a letter and made his way to the door.

“Not so fast!” Darryl was about to block his way, but three swift movements, Jayce had slipped through the door.

“Maybe I am a bit more dangerous than you,” he murmured. I turned to Darryl who was now bent over. He let out a groan.

“Oh mi gosh, are you ok?” I asked finally able to move.

“Nothing to worry about, he just winded me.” Darryl breathed. I helped him upstairs and waited with him until he was ok.

Passing him another cup of tea, I could see the discomfort he was in. Not in a physical sense. I think it was more of a pride thing. The fact that he got beaten and hadn’t even known it was a real kick to his manliness, or something like that.

“You were very brave for standing up to a thief, and he only took one letter” I praised half-heartedly, but it seemed to do the trick. Darryl’s face lit up a little when I smiled.

“Now I have some bragging rights, not ever one has seen the ‘Sultan of the stars’,” he laughed.

Amused I stood up and headed for the stairs.

“I guess I should be going, thank you for the company and the tea, it was nice catching up with you,”

“No problem, I’ll be sure to get your parcel to you right away.” Parcel? He was still thinking about his job? You could at least say a ‘goodbye’, or ‘see you later’.