Going Postal

Have you ever received a mystery in the mail? Remember the anticipation of the discovery inside? Here are six stories of the unexpected arriving by post...

The mail can bring boxes containing the raw ingredients for happy birthdays and joyful holidays, wrapped in colors; or the envelope bearing loops of blue ink on vellum, handwritten by an adoring lover.And yet, it can also bring more bills than can be paid, a summons to appear in court, a package of incriminating photographs, or an anonymous ransom note.

Even as existence becomes increasingly electronic, the arrival of the little white truck can inspire both delight and dread.

On these pages, six up-and-coming fiction writers step away from the expanding chitter-chatter of the digital and into the diminishing world of the mail, a world that one day might be remembered only for the stories it left behind.