Money for stamps

"Ha! Meester Kennedy! I have mail!"

It was Mr. Mochizuki the mailman on his red bicycle, happy to have a chance to practice his English, and I was up on the deck overlooking our little garden and our battered mailbox.

"Mr. Mochizuki, we will leave next week for Italy. So for the next three weeks please keep our mail for us. I will send you a postcard from Rome if you give me your address."

"Ah! Italia! A postcard from Roma? I will give you my address."

And the next day, Mr. Mochizuki put in our mailbox a card with his name and address carefully inscribed.

And from Rome we did send him a postcard of the glorious marble sculpture in the Piazza Navrona.

When we returned home three weeks later, the mail began again, right on time. In the first delivery, we found a card from Mr. Mochizuki saying "Grazie," with a 100-yen and a 50-yen coin scotch-taped to it. 

- Rick Kennedy