Reader's Digest Oct/Nov

www.readersdigest.asia 25 小小新鄰居 about five years ago, they decided to pay a local craftsman $250 to design a mailbox resembling their house, with lots of windows on the top and sides to let the light in. The interior is roomy, measuring 66 centimetres long, 38 centimetres wide and 25 centimetres high. It has solar-powered ceiling lights to illuminate the mailbox at night. Although a person can be fined up to $5,000 for putting items without postage inside somebody else’s mailbox, Don says he could not imagine alerting the authorities and evicting the dolls. “I asked our mail carrier if there would be a problem delivering our mail with the dolls in there, and he told me no – there was plenty of room,” Don says. “He also said he got a kick out of seeing what was going on inside my mailbox.” Every month or two, particularly around holidays, the Powells find something new tucked inside the box for Mary and Shelley. For Ha lloween 2022, t he doll couple temporarily disappeared a n d w e r e r e p l a c e d b y t w o small skeletons, he says, and at Christmastime, a decorated tree was left with tiny presents. Don says whoever left the gifts took them back right after Christmas, before he could open the boxes to see if anything was inside. The doll couple have also acquired a cat, he says. “It’s get t ing a lit t le crowded, especially because their cousin Shirley has also moved in, along with a service dog named Maggie,” Don says. “The note lef t in t he mailbox said they were all grateful to find a one-storey house because they’d previously lived in a Dutch-style dollhouse,” he says. “I’m assuming that place had more stairs.” After packages were left for the holidays, Don says he added a tiny addition of his own outside the mailbox: a miniature mailbox. “I decided it made sense to give them one, since their tiny letters were getting mixed up with ours and could get lost in the mail,” he says. Don says he now doesn’t want to know who is responsible for the mailbox saga because he’s hoping it will continue. “People in the neighbourhood are enjoying it and stop by sometimes to ask questions,” he says. “They want to know what we’re charging for rent and who mows the lawn. Some people ask if I’ve thought about installing an outdoor camera, but personally, I like the mystery of it.” THE WASHINGTON POST (MAY 2, 2023), © 2023 BY THE WASHINGTON POST