Mailman

Steve was laid off in March of 2020. He was fifty, had cancer, and needed health insurance--fast! Which is how he found himself as a rural letter carrier in Appalachia, back in his old hometown of Blacksburg, Virginia. Suddenly, he was the guy with the goods, delivering dog food and respirators and lube and heirloom tomato seeds and Lord of the Rings replica swords. He transported chicken feed to grandmothers living alone in the mountains, and traversed a creek with a refrigerator on his back. But while he carried the mail, he also carried a lot more than just the mail, including a family legacy of rage and the anxiety of having lost his identity along with his corporate job. And yet, slowly, surrounded by a ragtag but devoted band of letter carriers, working this different kind of job, Grant found himself becoming a different kind of person. He became a lifeline for lonely people, providing fleeting moments of human contact and the assurance that our government still cares.