The Postman Hates The Milkman
Original assignment here
We went a little way, and then she stopped. “Frank, I feel funny inside.”
“Here, hold on to me.”
“Oh, Frank. Maybe I strained myself, just then. Trying to keep my head up. So I wouldn’t gulp down the salt water.”
“Take it easy.”
“Wouldn’t that be awful? I’ve heard of women that had a miscarriage. From straining theirself.”
She lay there, and I towed her by the shoulder strap of her bathing suit. I began to give out. I could
have towed her a mile, but I kept thinking I had to get her to a hospital, and I hurried. When you hurry in
the water you’re sunk. I got bottom, though, after a while, and then I took her in my arms and rushed her
through the surf. “Don’t move. Let me do it.”
“Okay.”
That was the hollowest “okay” I had ever heard.
I ran up to the place where our sweaters were and got the car key out of mine. I ran back down to where she was sitting and wrapped both of them around her unresponsive frame.
“Frank. I’m bleeding”
I looked down, and sure as anything there was a small puddle of blood where she sat.
We drove silently all the way to the hospital. I thought I could see Cora crying, but she didn’t let anything on. It wasn’t until we got there that she said a word.
“My name is Cora Chambers, I’m pregnant and bleeding”
“Has the bleeding stopped?”
“No.”
“Alright, I’ll call the doctor to be right with you. Have a seat, try not to move.”
We sat down after the doctor said the kid died, and Cora looked at me like she’d seen war.
“This is what we deserved, Frank.”
“Now don’t say that, don’t you dare.”
“But it’s true. We took a life, so the universe took one back.”
I couldn’t reply- I knew she was right. Besides, there was too much silence that day already.
“I think you should go now, Frank.”
“What? Cora, I love you. I was going to stay and work the diner, that’s how much I love you.”
“You should go hunt for pumas with that girl. After all, you’re a dirty tomcat and she’s a real hell cat, you’ll get on fine.”
“Cora-“
“Go. I don’t want to see you. You’re no good, Frank.”
She was right.
I thought that the ending to Postman was ridiculous and completely unbelievable. The laws of that universe simply vanished and everyone got their “divine retribution”. I wanted Frank and Cora to suffer in a way that would make sense. In this ending, they both remain alive, but even more miserable than when they started. They have money, Cora has the diner, they got married, everything should have worked itself out- but it didn’t because life isn’t fair. Things can’t go back to normal anymore, and Frank and Cora’s relationship has felt its greatest quake.
I blended some of the original text into this ending, in order to have a cleaner transition between canon and alternate. I used notepad to type everything together, because it was short enough that I wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of Pages updating every time I opened it.
Have a screenshot
