Snails on Serious Sedatives

Please Mr. Postman, look and see
If there's a letter in your bag for me.
Why's it takin' such a long time
For me to hear from… 

~ The Marvelettes (1961)

Back around the time that the Marvelettes were belting out “Mr. Postman” in their beehive dos, Scott McMurry’s parents were visiting the John G. Shedd Aquarium in the windy city of Chicago. They were having a really good time, too. So good, in fact, that Scott’s mother sent him a postcard to let him know.

Her first line goes like this — “We’ll probably be home before this gets there…”

Well, Mama was having a psychic moment.

Scott’s parents came home on the midnight train to Georgia, and moved on with their lives.

Time moved on as well…

Some guys went to the moon, the PC was invented, the whole world began tweeting and posting cat photos on Facebook, and yet…

The postman did not look in his bag and see

A letter for our dear Scott McMurry.

That is, until May…

 of 2012.

According to the postcard, his parents have been having a whole heap of aquarium fun this whole time…

Even though Mama’s been dead for, like, 22 years.

Maybe it’s just me (yeah, it probably is), but there is something so deliciously creepy about postcards from the dead.

The postal plot possibilities are endless.

PROMPT: Yes, we are going postal today. Misguided, misdirected, and misunderstood letters are the plot du jour. And for the younger crowd — how about a picture book called Jolly Little Letter’s Wonderful Journey, where our protagonist languishes behind a processing machine as postmen go grey and retire? Okay, that one may need some work.