Not the mail.

The house.

The Bakkes would watch Odell, since they were nearest, honey or no honey.

The fighting young couple, given a purpose for once, took the three houses past them.

Krista, who had the most time and the least to give and needed most of all to be needed, took Emmitt — walked down every afternoon at two-fifteen with Rennie on her hip to sit on his porch, which meant Emmitt got his five minutes and Krista got out of her own four walls and the baby got a great-grandfather, and I have never in my life seen a problem solve three problems at once so cleanly.

They built, that road did, with a notebook and a phone tree, the exact thing the Postal Service was taking away.