At half past one I pulled into the asphalt lot at Oak Ridge Postal and Parcel, tucked in between the dry cleaner and the bakery.

A young clerk in a blue polo shirt stood behind the counter, taping up a cardboard shipping box for a customer.

When the customer left, I stepped up to the glass counter and laid the bank’s power of attorney sheet down flat.

“I need to check notary stamp serial number 4182 from August fourteenth,” I said.

The clerk looked at the purple ink impression at the bottom of the page, then squinted at the tiny numbers inside the border.

“That’s stamp seal number four,” he said.