What Happens Inside a Postbox
It starts with a little idea…
Poppy (child)“When you put a letter in, where does it actually go? I thought there might be little people in there sorting it. But there can’t be, can there? Can it be about sending one to Nana? She’s moved house.”
Rowan has a letter for Nana’s new home. Follow it from the postbox to her door, and discover who helps it get there. The animal characters are imagined; the postal steps are real.
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A letter for Nana
Nana had moved to a new flat. Rowan drew her a picture of a red kite flying over their old garden. He folded it into a letter and sealed the envelope. On the front, beside the stamp, he drew a tiny blue star. “How will it find her?” he wondered.
A wonderful guess
Perhaps tiny mice lived inside the postbox. Perhaps they had ladders, clocks and a slippery slide for letters. Rowan liked that idea. But it was only a guess. A real postbox is a safe place for letters to wait. Real postal workers collect them. No tiny mice are needed.
One important change
Mum checked the envelope. “Wait. That’s Nana’s old address.” Rowan’s ears went flat. His letter might have gone to the wrong home. They wrote a fresh envelope with Nana’s new address and postcode. Rowan added the stamp and his little blue star. “Now it knows where to go.”
Through the slot
Rowan reached up and pushed the letter through the slot. Flap. It was gone. Inside, it fell among the other envelopes. It could not start the next part of its journey until the postbox was emptied. Rowan pressed an ear to the metal. No mouse footsteps. Just a very quiet box.
The key in the door
At collection time, a postal worker unlocked the little door. The waiting letters went into a mailbag. Rowan’s blue star vanished into the pile. The bag travelled to a mail centre, where letters are sorted for their next journey. The postbox was empty again. Somewhere in that bag was Rowan’s kite.
A great many letters
At the mail centre, machines and postal workers helped sort the letters. The address and postcode showed which area each one needed. Some went one way. Some went another. Rowan’s letter joined the mail travelling towards Nana’s new neighbourhood. Nobody had to open it to see his drawing. The directions were outside.
The right street
At the delivery office, a postie put letters into the order of the streets and houses on the route. Then out went the mail. Past the park. Around the corner. Rowan’s letter was nearly there. The postie checked the address and stopped at Nana’s new door.
On Nana’s mat
The letter slid through the letterbox and landed on Nana’s mat. She opened it beside the window. There was the red kite. There was the old garden. For a moment, her new flat felt less new. Nana found her writing paper. Now she had something to send back.
All the way back
Rowan checked the mat whenever the postie came. One day, a letter was waiting. Nana had drawn her new window, with Rowan’s kite picture beside it. “I have found a good place for your kite,” she wrote. Rowan smiled. A postbox was quiet inside. But it could begin a very big hello.
An illustrated example of the experience we are developing. Talebrix is still in development; this book was not printed by the device.