A vintage postcard in my paperback left me with a choice

I picked up a cheap romance novel and a faded postcard from 1972 fell out, addressed to someone in my town. Part of me wanted to mail it back, but that seemed like overstepping into a stranger's life. So I just tucked it into a plastic sleeve and put it back in the book for the next person. It's a fuzzy line between being helpful and prying into old memories.

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_carter3d ago

Think about why that postcard was stuck in the book for so long. Do you think the original owner meant to send it or just forgot? Leaving it for the next person is a nice gesture, but what if the person on the address really needed to see it? You mentioned the fuzzy line between helping and prying, so how do you decide when to step in? Ever second-guess your choice (you know, like wondering if you should have tried to find them)?

stellachen3d ago

Decades stuck in a book? That's wild to me! The message must have felt urgent when it was written. Makes you wonder if the sender chickened out or truly forgot, and what that lost note meant.

hill.stella2d ago

Forget chickening out, what if it mattered?