Charlie’s Letterbox

Charlie loved checking the letterbox for mail. He would run out to check it every day. Sometimes he would see the mailman out of the window, and he would rush outside to say hello and thank him for delivering the mail. 

At his old house, Charlie had had a lot of mail. There were boring white envelopes that came that his mum and dad would put into the box marked “Bills” on the kitchen bench. There were big yellow envelopes that came for his brother, who would rip them open and sit on the couch reading the comics that came inside them. There were birthday party invitations from the children in his class. These would arrive in envelopes of electric blue, hot pink, and deep green. Once there had even been an envelope of shimming gold that had arrived with an invitation to his grandparent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary. 

However, a few months ago, Charlie and his family had moved house. Now, they hardly got any mail at all. The bills came on the computer, so no white envelopes in the letterbox. His brother had bought himself a tablet and read all of his comics online, so no big yellow envelopes in the letterbox. The summer holidays had just started when Charlie had moved, and school hadn’t gone back yet, so he hadn’t had a chance to make any new friends. That meant no blue, pink or green envelopes in the letterbox either. Poor Charlie, he was lonely and sad.

Now, Charlie’s letterbox wasn’t an ordinary letterbox. It wasn’t a regular square brick box with a slot in it, or a little house type box on top of a pole, oh no. Charlie’s letterbox was a wide, green metal box, with a stout little roof, sitting on top of a pair of concrete legs. That’s right, legs! Charlie’s letterbox had legs. But the legs weren’t the only thing on this letterbox that made it different. The letterbox could tell that Charlie was sad. It had never had a little human living in its house before. Every day Charlie would go down to check the letterbox, and every day he would sadly walk back to his house when he found it empty. 

The letterbox wanted to help Charlie feel better. So, late one night when everyone was in bed, the letterbox started to move. It wiggled its toes first, then it bent its knees. Finally, when it felt like it was ready, the letterbox took a giant leap and jumped right off its little patch of dirt. The letterbox searched up and down the street for an envelope, any type of envelope, for Charlie to find in the morning. Several houses down it found a white envelope. The letterbox quickly snatched up the white envelope and ran back up the street to Charlie’s house. It got back onto its little patch of dirt and stood there, still and silent again.

In the morning, Charlie was sitting playing in the front room when something out the window caught his eye. Looking carefully, Charlie thought he could see something white poking out of the letterbox. He rushed out of the door and up to the letterbox. He was right, there was something white in the letterbox. Charlie grabbed the white envelope out and raced it inside to his dad. Charlie’s dad looked at the envelope and shook his head.

“This doesn’t belong to us,” his dad said, “it belongs to someone down the street. Why don’t you go and stick it in their letterbox?”

Charlie ran down the street and found the right house. As he was putting the envelope into the letterbox the man who lived inside arrived home. He got out of his car and smiled at Charlie. Charlie explained that he was delivering a white envelope to the man that had been dropped off at their house by mistake. The man smiled.

“Oh, you didn’t want to pay my bill for me? Ah well, maybe next time,” he chuckled. “I have a son about your age, why don’t I bring him up to your house one day soon. The two of you could be friends.” Charlie thanked the man and told him that he would very much like to meet his son. He ran back up the street and gave his letterbox a quick pat as he passed by.

The letterbox was very pleased with itself. It felt good knowing that Charlie was so excited to find the white envelope. That night, the letterbox went out again to look for more envelopes. This time it saw a big yellow envelope sitting on the front porch of a house. It carefully and quietly tiptoed up to the front of the house, picked up the big yellow envelope, and then carefully and quietly tiptoed back away from the house. The letterbox thought that Charlie would be very happy with this big yellow envelope.

And he was! Charlie ran out to the letterbox the next morning to find a big yellow envelope stuffed inside the green metal box. He pulled it out and raced it inside to his mum.

“This doesn’t belong to us,” his mum said, “I think it belongs to the family down the street. Why don’t you deliver it to her?” So off went Charlie, down the street for the second time. He found the right house, ran up to the porch and rang the doorbell. A little girl answered the door.

“Oh, you found my comic! I was wondering when it would arrive. Want to read it with me?” she said. Charlie thanked her and they spent the morning reading comic books together. 

That night the letterbox found a blue envelope, a pink envelope and a green envelope. When Charlie checked it in the morning, he burst out laughing.

“These are not for me! I’d better deliver them to the right people.”

“Considering the amount of mail you’ve delivered this week Charlie I think we should start calling you Charlie the Mailman!” his mum laughed. Charlie and his mum delivered the three coloured envelopes to the correct houses. They belonged to children from houses nearby. Two letters were book lists for school, which started next week, and one was a birthday invitation. Charlie and his mum had a lovely afternoon meeting other children and mums from his new school. As they walked back home, Charlie asked his mother why the letters kept getting delivered to their house. She shrugged and said that maybe their new mailman was just lazy and couldn’t be bothered delivering the letters to the right house. Charlie glanced at their letterbox, and he was sure he saw the letterbox wink at him.

The next day, Charlie didn’t even look at the envelopes when he grabbed them out of the letterbox. He handed the red, yellow, white and blue envelopes to his mum and started walking back to his bedroom. Suddenly, his mum called out to him.

“Charlie, these have your name on them!” And they did! There was an invitation to a soccer match from the boy up the street, a comic that the girl down the street had drawn for him, a letter from his new teacher welcoming him to her class, and thank you note from the girl whose party invitation he had returned. Charlie was happy, and so was the letterbox.

So if you check your letterbox one day and find someone else’s mail in it, maybe you should ask your parents to help you deliver it to them. You never know, they might just be a friend you haven’t met yet.