The Mailbox

by Marybeth Whalen

  She nodded, shifting her weight from foot to foot. He put his hand on her shoulder and pressed his forehead to hers. “Pick you up at six?” he asked.

  She nodded again and turned to run up the stairs. As he watched her go, he did not see thirtysomething Lindsey. He saw Lindsey at fifteen: laughing, vibrant, and full of life, especially when they were together.

  w

  That night Campbell dropped off Nikki and picked up Lindsey at the beach house. Anna and Jake seemed thrilled to see Nikki walk in the door. He heard her promise Jake a duel on some video game and Anna a makeover. He put his arm around Lindsey as they headed to his truck and pulled her close. “They sound like they’re going to be just fine without us.”

  She grinned. “I think they’re actually ready to be rid of me for a while.” She swallowed. “They haven’t said so, but I think they fault me for Grant leaving.”

  He evaded her mention of Grant. The evening wasn’t about him. “I think Nikki wanted to have an excuse to get out of the house for an evening. Even if it’s just to spend it with two kids. It’s better than my mother and Minerva.”

  She laughed as he opened the truck’s passenger-side door for her and braced himself, watching her as she registered the stack of her letters, which he had arranged in order of years and tied with a red bow with a single rose threaded through the center. She looked at him. “Is this okay?” he asked her.

  He watched her eyes fill with tears as she nodded and let her fingers flutter through the stack. “I never thought I’d see them again.”

  “They’re all there,” he said, tapping the bundle and shutting her door.

  w

  He drove them straight to the pier. But before walking to the edge like he normally did, he asked the question he’d wanted to ask for years. “Will you dance with me?”

  She laughed, then looked at him like he was crazy. “Dance?” she asked, as if she heard him wrong.

  He turned on the truck’s stereo, which had already been queued to a track number. As the first strains of “Boys of Summer” began to play, Lindsey looked at him and shook her head incredulously.

  “Remember this?” he asked her.

  “How could I forget?”

  He got out of the truck and walked around to help her out. He held her in his arms in the parking lot at the pier, and they swayed to Don Henley, both of them remembering a couple of kids dancing slow to a fast song. Though much had changed, their dance stayed the same.

  Some surfers walked past them, oblivious. A teenage couple walked by, looking very much like Lindsey and Campbell once did. The couple smiled and leaned into each other as they continued toward the pier.

  Campbell sang to Lindsey softly, “I can tell you my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone.” He held her close until the song ended, then took her hand to lead her to the pier.

  “I have to say, I can’t believe we’ve made our way back here in spite of everything,” she mused as they walked.

  He chuckled. “Me either. We have a lot of lost time to make up for.”

  “But was it lost?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, it wasn’t what we would have chosen, but I’m starting to believe it was what was supposed to happen. It looks like we made wrong turns with the wrong people and yet, I look at Anna and Jake and Nikki—”

  “Nikki?” he interrupted with a playful grin on his face.

  “Yes, Nikki!” She laughed and shoved him slightly. “Anyway, I know they are supposed to be here, and that wouldn’t have happened without those wrong turns.” She looked over at him, and he nodded his understanding. “I have to believe that the way it all played out was part of God’s very interesting plan for our lives. That for whatever reason we could only be together now, after we grew up.”

  “I still wish we could have grown up together,” he said, squeezing her hand.

  “And yet I love who we’ve both become,” she added. “I wouldn’t change that. The way you are with Nikki. How we both found a relationship with God through our struggles. I’m not sure we would have reached the same conclusions without those struggles.”

  He just grinned. And as they reached the end of the pier, he asked her, “Can I see you tomorrow?”

  Her answer was a given. “What did you have in mind?”

  He smiled. “I thought we’d take a walk out to the mailbox. You still have a letter to write this year, if I’m not mistaken.”

  She thought about the letter she wrote but never left and knew he was right. She leaned closer to him, kissed his cheek. “Let’s write a letter together this year. Start a new tradition. I’m tired of writing letters alone.” He wrapped his arm around her, and they stood in the same spot where they had danced and dreamed and decided to love each other always. They couldn’t see the mailbox from where they stood, but it was, always, near. The gulls shrieked and the waves crashed, and they had never heard any music more beautiful than that.

  The Kindred Spirit Mailbox

  Sunset Beach

  Spring 2005

  She gathered with the small group of guests to watch the couple exchange vows in front of the mailbox. Being there with other people felt foreign, unnatural. She liked the anonymity of coming and going undetected, savoring the contents of the mailbox without sharing them. She tried to stop thinking about where she was and focused instead on why she was there.

  She watched the groom, who looked happier than she had ever seen him as he took his place beside the pastor. Beside him stood the bride’s son, who looked stiff and uncomfortable in his starched white shirt and tie. The boy tugged at his collar and stared off at the ocean as though he were about to jump into it. She smiled and winked at the groom’s mother, her dear friend. She felt the pang of keeping the secret of her identity from her, but it was part of the job description.

  A violin began to play the strains of a song she didn’t recognize as the bridesmaids—the bride’s daughter and the groom’s daughter in matching pale pink sundresses—came down the shell-lined aisle. They held bouquets of beach roses mixed with baby’s breath. As the bride came in behind them, stunning in a simple white sundress with a sheer white wrap over her shoulders, the Kindred Spirit rose with the rest of the guests. She watched as the bride winked at a woman with a walker in the front row. The woman winked back and gave a thumbs-up. The Kindred Spirit noticed the resemblance between the two women and wondered if they were perhaps mother and daughter.

  Of course, everyone there knew the story of how the mailbox brought these two people together—but no one knew the thousands of other stories she was privy to each time she made the trek down the beach to retrieve the notebooks and letters. Watching the wedding was her own celebration of what being the Kindred Spirit was all about.

  The mailbox wasn’t just hers. It belonged to many. Though she could share her secret with no one, she could share this moment with those who gathered there. She could thank God for seeing fit to let her be the Kindred Spirit. The mailbox might not change the world, but it had changed these two people’s lives—and hers in the process—revealing a place where soul mates are discovered, hope is salvaged, and love finds a way back to where it started.

  … a little more …

  When a delightful concert comes to an end,

  the orchestra might offer an encore.

  When a fine meal comes to an end,

  it’s always nice to savor a bit of dessert.

  When a great story comes to an end,

  we think you may want to linger.

  And so, we offer ...

  AfterWords—just a little something more after you

  have finished a David C. Cook novel.

  We invite you to stay awhile in the story.

  Thanks for reading!

&n
bsp; Turn the page for ...

  • Author Interview

  • Discussion Questions

  • Visiting the Mailbox

  Author Interview

  Q: How much of this novel is actually true?

  A: The assumption is that a first novel is going to be autobiographical, but in this case it’s not true. While there might be brief references within the novel to things that happened to me or feelings I have had—especially as a mom, friend, wife, etc.—the overall story and situation is completely made up. But the setting … that’s entirely true. There really is a Sunset Beach, North Carolina, and it’s my most favorite place in the world. So it makes sense that I would set my first novel there. I have been visiting the mailbox for years and believe that it is a special place. A place where, as the photographer Lindsey meets says in the book, God hears you better.

  Another true aspect about the novel is that I did first visit Sunset Beach, like Lindsey, at fifteen years old in 1985 (telling my age). I have very vivid memories of that trip to this day, which is how I was able to recall the details, the music, etc., of that time. In the acknowledgments, I thanked an old friend of mine, Holly, who took me with her on that trip. I also named the character of Holly after her as a little tribute. She couldn’t have known then that that trip sparked a lifelong love of Sunset Beach for me. When we left that year, I vowed I would come back when I was a grown-up. And I do go back every summer. I also named the characters of Uncle Bob, Aunt Frances, and cousins Bobby and Stephanie after my real aunt, uncle, and cousins, as it is their beach house we stay in every summer. That was my way of giving them a little shout-out.

  Q: So the mailbox is real? Do you know who the Kindred Spirit is?

  A: Yes, the mailbox is real, but I don’t know who the Kindred Spirit is. No one does. That’s part of the mystery and folklore of the mailbox. If you are ever in North Carolina, I highly recommend a visit.

  Q: You have said that the book changed quite a bit from the original to the version we see. How so?

  A: In the original, there was a letter to the Kindred Spirit for every year from 1985 to 2004. My editor didn’t feel we needed a letter for every year—that the letters were slowing down the flow of the story, which was true. So we left a few in so that the reader would know that Lindsey was writing letters every year, but not get mired down in every detail of every year as I originally planned. I think we have a happy medium now, a better mix between narrative and the glimpses into Lindsey’s past via the letters.

  Also, in the original, Holly died. That seems so weird now because she became so much a part of the story, helping Lindsey process what’s happening to her like good friends do. The story of Holly’s death was told through the letters, so when we pulled those out, we had to figure out what that did to the storyline. I ended up adding her back and I am so glad I did! Oh, and in the very first manuscript, Lindsey’s name was Lucy, but I quickly discerned that she was so not a Lucy. Lindsey suits her much better!

  Q: Did you experience a powerful summer romance like Lindsey and Campbell’s that you drew from for this story?

  A: No. I had a few summer romances, but none that were enduring like you see in this story. Regardless of whether we’ve had a great summer love, I think it’s a notion that resonates with all women: this idea that we are unforgettable, that we are worth pursuing at all costs. God puts that in our hearts because ultimately He is the great Pursuer, the One who never forgets us. I liked that in this story, Lindsey discovers that about Him first, then finds it in Campbell. She was never forgotten. None of us are.

  Q: You deal with a tough subject in this book: a Christian woman in the midst of a divorce and rebuilding her life. What made you decide to focus on this?

  A: Honestly, it’s just how the story came to me. I didn’t really think about the aspect of her being divorced until I was well into the first draft and a friend of mine had pretty much the exact same thing happen to her that was happening to Lindsey. What was so interesting is that I went back and read what I had written from Lindsey’s point of view and it was nearly verbatim what I heard my friend saying. I knew then I was on the right track of tapping into the feelings and emotions of what Lindsey was going through in a way that would ring true. We have had so many friends go through this; I know there are women everywhere facing what Lindsey faced. And I often think, But by the grace of God, go I.

  Q: You dedicated this book to a friend, Ariel Allison Lawhon, saying that this book wouldn’t exist without her. Why is that?

  A: For most of my life I have had story ideas pop into my head. I would see something happen and think, What if …? So when I met Ariel, I was chewing on this idea for The Mailbox, and had been for some time. At that point she was trying to find a publisher for her novel, eye of the god, and she really encouraged me to try writing fiction. I was so nervous about it—I didn’t know if I had the stick-to-itiveness to actually finish a novel. With her continued encouragement, I kept putting words down—though I knew next to nothing about what I was doing. Finally I got about sixty thousand words in and quit. I had written myself into a corner and couldn’t get out. So I closed that file and moved on to other projects. A few months later I received this random email from Ariel encouraging me not to quit and begging me to just finish it. She said, “No one writes sixty thousand words and quits. You have to finish this book.” So I did. If she hadn’t persisted, I am convinced the book would still be sitting in a forgotten file with sixty thousand words written. So that (and her continued friendship and listening to my rambling on a daily basis) earns her a dedication for this book. I also dedicated it to my husband, who puts up with a whole lot when I am writing and deserves a dedication too!

  Q: Now that you have written one novel, do you think you will write more novels?

  A: Yes, I plan to write more novels. I keep a running list of ideas and add to it often, so I hope that list will keep me going for quite some time. I am working on a new novel that comes out next year and is totally different from The Mailbox. One thing I have learned through this experience is, I will always have more to learn about the craft of writing. I will continue to learn for the rest of my career as a novelist, and my hope is my work will reflect what I am learning with each successive book. That’s the plan at least.

  Discussion Questions

  1. Lindsey is recently divorced. If you have been through a divorce and have kids, do you sympathize with her feelings as a newly single mom? If not, did seeing her character struggle affect how you view divorced women?

  2. Lindsey struggles with her role as a mom, especially in light of the new dynamic of her family and her daughter’s transformation into a preteen. Campbell struggles with staying connected to his daughter from a distance. They each make efforts to connect with their children. Why do their efforts work or not work? Are they doing all they can as parents? Why is God’s grace so important to both of them?

  3. At the beginning of the story, Campbell discovers his daughter has passed out at work. His mind goes down paths of worry even though he tries not to be irrational. Have you ever experienced that happening? How did you control your tendency to worry?

  4. Lindsey’s daughter, Anna, says to her, “If Dad loves me like you say, he wouldn’t hurt me like this. I don’t think that he really loves any of us. I think that he loves himself and doing what he wants is all that matters now. But that’s not what real love is. If he loved me, he wouldn’t make me feel this bad. ’Cause when you love someone, you care about how they feel too.” Why is this true of Grant, and what does it say about his character?

  5. What are some of the things Lindsey learns to appreciate about her new life as a single mom while she is at the beach? How do these little realizations affect her perspective and influence her actions?

  6. Ellie shocks Campbell by telling him that he can take Nikki with him to Sunset Beach. Why does she allow him to? Is Campbell prepared to be a
father to a teenage girl with issues? Does he think he is? Does Ellie?

  7. Both Holly and Grant’s mother, Jane, encourage Lindsey to move on with her life. Do you think that encouragement has something to do with Lindsey’s decision to take Minerva up on her offer to walk by Campbell’s house? If you were Lindsey, would you have done what Minerva suggested?

  8. Running is a great outlet for Lindsey. How does it help her heal? Is there a physical activity or hobby that helps you like that? If not, are you inspired to find one?

  9. All Lindsey wanted her whole life was a hands-on, involved mom. How do you think that lack affects her mothering?

  10. Lindsey and Campbell leave the crowded restaurant and end up at the pier. Why do you think they both agreed to do that?

  11. The photographer Lindsey meets at the mailbox plays a role in both her and Campbell’s lives. Do you believe God puts people in our lives to accomplish His purposes? Have you ever had an encounter that could have been orchestrated only by God?

  12. What do the red shoes symbolize to Campbell? What does it mean to him when Nikki decides to wear the flip-flops he buys her?

  13. How would you describe Campbell’s journey as a father? As a child of God?

  14. How would you describe Lindsey’s spiritual journey? What does she learn about herself by the end of the book?

  15. Would you have been able to trust Campbell after you found the letters? Would you have been able to forgive him? Why does Lindsey?

  16. Why does Lindsey make Grant leave? Was she right to do so? Did he deserve a second chance? Why, or why not?

  17. Holly prays for Lindsey to see Grant and Campbell for who they really are. Was her prayer answered?

  18. What do you think happens between Lindsey and her mom after the wedding? Was Lindsey right to stay and deal with her situation with Grant and Campbell, or should she have gone to her mother’s bedside?