Something to be Said

Lad Moore

I love small towns. They make me feel far removed from the awful events of September Eleventh. (在小镇，我们感觉远离9.11事件。)

Yesterday I had three packages to mail internationally（邮寄到国外）. Two were going to Canada, and one to the UK. All three specified a SASE（贴足邮资写明发信人姓名地址的回信信封）with "International Reply Coupons."（国际回邮票）

US Post Office, Woodlawn TX, Population 183.

The postmistress（女邮政员）greeted me with a Snickers bar grin while "Judge Judy" hollered at somebody on the rabbit-eared TV. （她正在看电视。）

"International what?” she said. "I never heard of such. What would you even want with them?" (她不明白什么是国际回邮票。)

I explained their purpose.

"I wouldn't know anything about them, let alone（更不用说）know how to use them, so it's likely we won't ever have any," she said. "Try over to Jefferson. They're bigger, but they close at four." It was 3:20.

US Post Office, Jefferson TX, Population 2,960.

I arrived at 3:44---breathing hard from trotting through the parking lot with my parcels.（气喘吁吁的）

The woman listened as I explained what I wanted. Her total attentiveness was assured（她肯定十分仔细听我解释，与前一个不同）because she watched me over the top of her glasses.

"Humm," she said. "I've heard of those. Carl! Don't we have them foreign stamp things?

Carl said, "I think that's what those slips in the safe（保险箱）are. Had 'em for years." Carl was busy trying to decide where to put stamps on a tubular package（管状邮包） big enough to contain a set of water skis（滑水用具）. "Get one out and show it to him," he said.

The woman returned, rubbing the coupon on her sleeve so as to slick it up. （邮票很脏，她就在袖子上擦擦。）

"Is this what you want? Look at all that funny writing on it. Is that French? Carl, this thing is marked $1.05. Is that the old price? Is that what we still charge?

"Postage went up a smidgen,"（上涨一点点）she said, with a smile intended to prepare me for a one or two cent hike（涨价）.

Carl answered, "Sell it to him for $1.05. I don't know the price. He placed the ski package into a cart and took the woman's position at the counter.

"Okay, next! Sir, you'll need to step aside so folks in line can tend their business（排队的人可以结束业务）before we close." Carl waved his hand to restart the stalled traffic（停止的人流）behind me.

"Okay," I said, feeling humbled（感觉卑下）. I moved to the end of the counter amidst frowns and curious stares from the patrons.（遭遇其他顾客的皱眉和怒视）

"I need three," I shouted to the woman as she disappeared behind a burlap curtain. "Wait," I said. "Make it six, so I'll have some extras."

She returned, buffing（摩擦）the coupons on her sleeve again. "They've been in our safe forever, but we only had two. I guess you can have them both, and then we'll be done with them."（打发掉它们）

I carefully thought about which two of the packages should get the coupons. The third one would have to be happy with cash（第三只包裹只能放现金）; and I placed a dollar and a nickel inside the SASE. Maybe the person opening the package in the United Kingdom would note the Jefferson postmark（邮戳）and somehow understand. I know that Tony Blair and those folks are our friends. （布莱尔是英国首相，他们是美国人的朋友。）