"The building looks like a gym on the inside too, with the letter lines spread out over the floor where the carriers sort, and an enclosed catwalk extending along the walls above them and across the middle, just over their heads. The catwalk belongs to the postal inspectors, the Postal Service's cabal of regulatory enforcers: every six feet there's a one-way window where they can peer out. You never know when they're in there; you never see them. Sometimes you hear their slow footsteps, if you happen to be under the catwalk when they pass overhead. Like a goose on your grave.

"Are they there as a matter of course, or only when someone's suspected of something? Nobody knows. What do they wear? Suits? Uniforms? Do they carry weapons? Uncertain. Those who have seen them have only seen them for a few seconds, and remember little: a sideburn, a mole. They can come out anytime and flash their badges and cuff you and drive you to Elmira and interrogate you until you break. They can imprison you. That is, if you've done anything wrong. Like what?

"Stealing mail. Opening mail. Destroying mail."

--from Mailman by J. Robert Lennon

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Barrett Chase is the creator of Barrett Chase Dot Com, a text-based blog that ran from February, 2003 - February, 2005. The Product is a new vision and a new start. You may contact him by emailing bchase at gmail dot com.

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