Short story, Thanks, Susannah…

This post comes after reading Susannah’s post entitled, “Rug Burn“.

I have, basically, mailed two packages out-of-country.  The first was a large box of cheap books (yes, they cost me about 4x their cost to ship) shipped to friends in Argentina.

The second, ah, that is a much more interesting story.

I have a wonderful friend of many years whom I met on a spiritual site.  We sparked conversations and the emails began and have slowed, but not stopped, to this day.  She works at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.  I try to donate there once a year and get to catch up if we haven’t spoken in awhile.  She has invited me to visit, which I may do someday. We shall see.  Anyway, there was an author, do I say Dean Koontz?  I am not certain, but he sounds right.  She enjoyed this author and I had several duplicate copies of his books.  So, I packed up in a box and mailed it in November hoping for a Christmas present to her.  I told her it was coming.  It didn’t.  And, it didn’t….and..well, you get the idea.  I gave up and decided that something had been done wrong.

In June (6 months later) she wrote to say she received my books.  I was astounded and told her so.  Her reply was casual, but amazing to me.  She said (not a quote);

Scott, you must understand how things work here.  Your package probably arrived within a few days at the docks in Dominican Republic.  The “boys” on the docks would have opened your box, taken the books, and passed them around to be read by all.  Then, when done (around late May), they would rewrap and send it back on its way.

This upset me to no end, but now, looking back, I think how wonderful it was that Linda received my package and was happy and there is no telling how many SF/Thrill/Horror fans I made happy by sending them on their long journey.

Isn’t it funny how things really work out?

Namaste,

Scott