What’s the most unusual thing you’ve received in the mail? When Daughter was a college student, she sent a shoebox filled with leaves. Colorful fall leaves from Berry College in Georgia. Why would she send this when our yard and driveway were completely covered with leaves?
As teenagers, Daughter and Son teased me about my Leaf Reports. Beginning when they were very young, I talked about leaves. “Look, the trees have big buds. In a few days, we’ll see leaves,” I said in the spring. During summers, we identified trees by their leaves. My children said I gave daily Fall reports: the changing colors, falling leaves, and the crunch of dried leaves. Daughter’s box of leaves was a happy surprise, and I kept that love gift for years, stacked with other shoe boxes in my closet.
Last week the mail carrier delivered an even more unusual gift. Our 15-year old Grand was visiting and said, “Look what you got in the mail, Gran.” He pointed to a small pumpkin, about seven inches tall and six inches in diameter. It has a jagged-tooth smile, a triangle nose, and smiling half circle eyes drawn with a black marker.
“What?” I said, “This was in the mailbox?” My Grand explained that the pumpkin was delivered to front porch. “Where’s the box it came in?” I asked.
“There wasn’t a box. Look, your name is on it,” he said. There’s a hand-written address label secured with clear packing tape and a United States postage label showing the mailing cost, $8.70. Another postal service label gives the tracking number.
“You mean it came through the mail like this?” He looked at me with the look that only a teenager can give. I’m glad he didn’t say, “Duh, Gran.”
There was no return address so the person who sent Happy Jack wanted to remain anonymous. The only clues were the hand writing looked familiar and “Mailed from zip code 38501” was on the label. But who’d spend $8.70 to mail a pumpkin? Why not just deliver it?
Maybe it was the person I’d talked with a few days before and she and I agreed that we love a good mystery and love solving it. Maybe it was the friend who left a foot-tall yellow rubber duck on my front porch a few years ago. Maybe it was the friend who likes to play jokes and knew I needed a good laugh. All three of them responded to my text inquiries, “No, not me.”
I sent pictures of Happy Jack to Daughter and Son and they shared them with their families so we all laughed about this surprise and tried to figure out the sender. After many guesses and sending many texts of inquiry, I received this reply: “Yes! I thought it’d be a fun thing to show all those Grands!”
Happy Jack sits on my back door step, and he is fun for all of my family. But I’ll not tell who sent him because, after all, he was sent anonymously. Happy Halloween!
Susan Writes 
A good unusual story. By the way, it is not anonymous anymore, since you know who sent it. So that being said, could you share the giver?
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