The Story of Olivaro

by Laura Waltje

Olivaro hated his job. He was a postman. The two main difficulties to his job were these: every single block in Reality had a different name and no houses had numbers. Instead of delivering a letter to 14 Maple St. he would have to find Alana’s house on Fornication and Jesus Christ.

And so he would go around every day, trying to find the residencies of the inhabitants of Reality. He would go past Istanbul and Constantinople on to Paisley and Relax, past Taylor’s home on Summertime and Reality, under Bethany’s boat-home, by Annebeth’s tower on Cataclysm and Ta-da, all the way to Jesus Christ and Fornication until he came to Postcard and Double-spoons. Here, at Howl’s estate, he would drop off his last letters and trudge home, dejected and overwhelmed with the insignificants of his life.

This pattern continued for months and a year until one day he did not stop after Howl’s Estate. On this day he continued down the street to Blink and Murder Park. It was an idyllic place, quiet and full of solitude. Olivaro sat on a park bench at the top of the hill and looked out over Reality. From his spot he could see the river, and on it Leo’s fish. ~ God, what an awful stench that fish has, a horrible place to deliver mail to. ~ He though, but even this did not bother him right now. He was at peace.