Reggie Volunteers to Pick up the Mail

This is one of those stories that still makes me grin and shake my head at how cunning Reggie could be.

My father’s morning routine rarely changed. He would get up early, put on a pot of coffee, watch the boats and activity at the harbour, call one of his AA buddies and tie up the telephone for half an hour or more, and then, around 8:30, drive to the post office to pick up the mail and The Guardian.

Early in Grade 11, Reggie suddenly offered to take over one part of that routine.

“You don’t have to pick up the mail. I’ll do that for you every day before I go to school.”

It was one less thing for Dad to do, so he accepted the offer. In fact, Mum and Dad were impressed. Reggie appeared to be showing some initiative and taking on a little responsibility.

Reggie had another reason for volunteering.

By this time, Dad was becoming increasingly concerned about the direction Reggie was taking. Reggie was getting into trouble at school and receiving detentions and warnings, and Dad had already begun trying to steer him away from the path he feared Reggie was following.

Reggie certainly had no reason to provide Dad with additional evidence that things weren’t going well.

He knew that sooner or later the school would send letters home about the problems—and at least one such letter had already arrived.

So Reggie made sure he got to the mail first.

By volunteering to collect it every morning before school, he put himself in the perfect position to intercept letters from the high school before Mum or Dad ever saw them.

What makes the story particularly remarkable is that Reggie didn’t simply destroy everything he intercepted.

He kept at least one of the letters.

More than twenty years later, it was still among his possessions.

The document below is one of the high school letters Reggie intercepted before it could reach our parents.