Street Scene
So I'm outside my office building yesterday (at a more respectable hour, thank you very much - the sun was out and everything) and this woman walks by me, stopping at the U.S. Postal Service relay box by the bus stop.
These boxes, in case you didn't know, are in place so that foot-based mail carriers don't have to return to their central office with outgoing mail - once their bucket is full, they go to a transfer box, drop off their packages, and continue on their route; a mail truck comes by later and picks the mail up from there. In particularly dense areas, it works the other way 'round as well.
These mail boxes look like regular blue post office boxes, but bigger, matte green and without a mail slot of any kind. They are, in short, not at all like any servicable mailbox in the entire country. They are designed to blend into the background and be ignored.
(Personally, I like to sit on top of 'em and watch the passersby while eating cheap sushi, in some tiny way repurposing the urban landscape, like skateboarding for the unathletic. It...confuses people.)
Anyway. So this woman goes up to the box, letter in hand, and looks for a slot. Not finding one, she circles the box becoming more and more confused. Twice, then again, then again, the agitation growing until she gives up and leaves her letter on top of the box, storming away in disgust.
What's even funnier is, on her way away from the box, she stomped right past an honest-to-god blue mailbox on the opposite corner and didn't even blink.
I dropped her letter off for her because, hell, why not. I got a story out of it, and it seemed fair.