Hope Delivered By Christmas

Purposeful Coincidences

Chapter 2: Purposeful Coincidences

Reed swiped his key card to get into the Mail Recovery and Lost Letter Department. He took in his new work space, awed that such a place existed. He never knew there was actually a unit dedicated to recovering lost or undeliverable mail. It was fascinating!

He stood in the space, not sure how he was supposed to proceed or where he should begin. The place wasn't very large but there were lots of shelves with all sorts of interesting little things, Knick knacks, oddities, lots of old books and plenty of mail. It was almost like there was a sea of letters everywhere. Maybe that was why he got the job! He picked up a letter from a nearby bin when the doors swung open with a woman carrying a huge stack of papers and books. Reed watched her for a second, then dropped the letter in his hand and quickly rushed over to help her, but she was much quicker, slamming the stack down on a desk, her tied up hair bouncing along from the swift action.

"Phew, Thank you!"

"Sorry, I didn't catch you in time." Reed said.

"No problem. You must be the new guy! I'm Quinn!" Her spunky and spit-fired personality already shone through.

"I suppose I am. Reed." He holds his hand out.

Quinn shakes his hand. "Finally! We have been looking for someone for a while."

"You have? I kind of noticed. No wonder I got the job so quickly." Reed said, realizing he got a call back almost immediately.

"We have tried and tried to get someone who would be perfect here, but she repeatedly declines. So we opened it up to the public, but no one has shown any interest... except you." Quinn said, almost laughing.

"Oh good, so I am the last resort?" Reed said half jokingly.

Quinn realized how her words might have sounded, "Oh! That's not what I- I didn't mean it like, I'm sure you're- we are happy you are here-"

Reed put his hand up to stop her from babbling on, and said, "It's ok! Really. I will try not to take it personally" he tried to give a light-hearted tone so she would relax. "So... how does this all work?

While Quinn was explaining all the ins and outs of the daily operations and the tasks within this area, a young boy's overdue letter was making its way through the Post Office's sorting until it ultimately made its way to the Lost Mail Unit.

Quinn was just finishing explaining as much as she could to Reed without scaring him off. "Think you are up for the challenge?"

"I'm still here." he said with a smirk.

"Great, well, I'll leave you to it for now. If you need anything just come find me. Good luck."

"Thanks... I think." He said as he looked around to all the undelivered mail everywhere.

He reached the bin to pick up a letter again as someone walked in to give a form to Quinn just as she was leaving, when a letter drops onto the floor. The person walks away too quickly. Reed picks up the letter that reads 'To who can find me a family' Reed took a seat, making sure there were no identifiable markers, simply a stamp, before opening it to read its contents.

As he read the heartfelt message enclosed, his heart inflated, and he knew he had to find the owner of this letter. It's too important not to because this kid needed him.

Reed found Quinn, the letter in his hand, "How should I search for an unidentifiable person?"

"You know the library has better computers to do research on this project, " Quinn tried to be subtle because she knows who works at the library.